28,656 products and counting for Hewlett-Packard

By Richard Morochove

First published June 5, 1997

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Competitors who take aim at Hewlett-Packard won't find an easy target. Lew Platt, HP chairman, president and CEO, is determined to keep the world's third largest computer company (after IBM and Fujitsu) dodging rivals' bullets.

Earlier this year, Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer predicted his Houston-based business would grow to one of the top three computer companies by the year 2000 by emphasizing sales to big business, one of HP's traditional strengths.

"I think he [Pfeiffer] doesn't know what he doesn't even know yet about that business," said Platt. "That's a different business from selling PCs out through the dealer channel.

"The support requirements are different. He's trying to build a support organization to support the enterprise customer. He's got a lot of work ahead of him."

Platt's ammunition is new products and plenty of them. It may sound curious that a company that now sells 28,656 different products needs more. However, two-thirds of HP's orders are for goods introduced within the past two years, so a constant flow of innovative merchandise is essential.

Profit growth slowed to just 8 per cent in the latest quarter, down from HP's long-term growth trend around 18 per cent. Platt attributed the slowdown to a dip in sales of LaserJet printers and the Pavilion line of home PCs. Platt and others at HP's worldwide headquarters outlined some of the major product introductions in the pipeline.

This summer will see new ink jet printers in eight of HPs ten product groups. Unlike HP's current crop of printers, most of which are optimized for text, the new printers will be tuned to emphasize the reproduction of images, part of the company's move into digital photography.

Have you ever seen a Web page graphic that looks great on your monitor, but terrible after you print it out? This happens because your monitor displays about 80 pixels per inch, while your printer delivers 300 or more dots per inch. An image designed for the low monitor resolution looks very rough at the higher printer resolution.

HP hopes FlashPix technology will solve this common problem. Jointly developed by HP, Kodak, Microsoft and Live Picture, FlashPix is a hierarchical digital imaging format, where different resolutions of the same image are available in one file.

This method delivers high-quality images you can manipulate quickly, using less memory. The resolution is scaled automatically to accommodate the capabilities of your imaging device: low resolution for Web pages viewed on your monitor, medium res. for Web page printouts, high quality for photo prints and highest quality for posters.

What's the catch? FlashPix requires special software to create the images, to deliver them on a Web server and to view them on a browser. This could hamper the widespread adoption of this technology, even though it's backed by some impressive names. Visit HP's FlashPix site to download the software and examine sample images.

Future HP printers will be smarter. A special purpose processor in the printer will understand common Java instructions. This printer could be connected to the Internet and handle simple Java applets. The smart printer will let you know when you're running out of ink or toner and could even order a replacement cartridge for you over the Internet, if you let it.

Some printer models will offer better security with slip-in Smart Cards for authentication, encryption and payment.

In home PCs, HP plans to introduce more powerful Pavilion models featuring the Pentium II processor in July. A DVD drive will add more than $500 to the retail price of a computer system, so it will be included only on selected models this fall and won't become widespread until prices drop in 1998.

Tired of your slow Internet connection? Cable modem and ADSL technologies can deliver megabit per second (Mbps) and faster data transfer rates. But HP is working on an even faster radio-based system that can blast up to 52 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream.

A neighbourhood transmitter sends the signal to a 12-inch dish on your roof. It's expected to cost less than $1,000 for the dish and radio modem.

Bandwidth for these LMCS (Local Multi-point Communication Systems) was recently allocated in Canada. Trials are now underway in the U.S and Europe. Commercial systems may be up and running as early as 1999.

HP contributed to the next generation IA-64 (Intel Architecture - 64 bit) processor from Intel. The first processor in this generation, code-named Merced, will meld HP's PA-RISC with Intel's Pentium technology. The chip will be able to run both MS Windows NT and HP-UX (HP's version of UNIX) operating systems.

Neither Intel nor HP will commit to a specific release date for the chip. According to Craig Barrett, who took over as Intel president on May 21, Merced should be widely available in PCs by 1999.

Although computer and printer products now account for 82 per cent of HP's revenues, the company started in the instrument and measurement field.

"People go home from hospitals pretty sick these days," said Platt. So HP, a long-time supplier of high-end medical test and monitoring devices to hospitals, is coming out with simplified and less expensive models. Initially, they will be targeted at clinics and ambulances, but eventually some will be aimed at the home market to serve an aging population.

In the works are preventive care devices to monitor blood pressure, oxygen/carbon dioxide levels, temperature and EKG. The hospital at home line will also include chronic care instruments to measure glucose levels and a spirometer to determine lung capacity. Telemedicine devices will be connected to the Internet so a remote technician could analyze results and call in additional help, if required. CW