HP Uncorks New Printing Technology

HP's Scalable Printing Technology, showcased at a New York news conference, features a new print head that can spray more ink faster and in a higher density than previous systems, company executives said. One HP executive referred to the technology, which took five years and cost $1.4 billion to develop, as the development of an "inkjet Moore's Law."

"It means significant cost reduction, significant time-to-market reduction," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group. "It changes the game. It changes the way we are going to double up and market and meet customer needs."

This fall, HP plans to ship the first business product with the Scalable Printing Technology: the HP OfficeJet Pro K550 Color Printer, a single-function desktop printer. With the new technology, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor will be able to price the device at half the list price of rival products and cut its operating cost by 30 percent, Joshi said. HP executives estimated the new printer's price at about $200, but exact pricing wasn't immediately available.

HP also announced new consumer printers with the new technology: the HP Photosmart 8250 photo printer and the HP Photosmart 3000 All-in-One, both of which can print a color photo in 14 seconds. The Photosmart 8250 will be available this month priced at about $199, and the Photosmart 3000 All-in-One is slated to ship this fall and be priced between $299 and $399, the company said.

The new print-head technology will require new ink and paper because the ink is sprayed faster and in higher volume than previous inks, providing less time for the paper to absorb the ink, HP executives said.

HP is launching the new printing technology amid what solution providers and vendors acknowledge as an out-and-out price war in document technology. Several months ago, Joshi said HP planned to make aggressive pricing moves in the printing space. Rival Dell, meanwhile, is selling its printing systems at extremely low prices.