HP is one of the largest tech firm in the world with products ranging from PCs to LCD monitors to devices like printers. HP may be best known for its computers, but a large portion of the company's profits come from printers and more specifically the ink that often costs more to replace than the printer cost to purchase new.
HP is set to try to reinvigorate the printing industry with a new line of printers that has a very interesting feature -- their own email addresses. When HP talked about using its newly purchased webOS operating system on devices like printers, there were many who though that a web connected printer was a gimmick and something that most consumers would not use. However, as more information on HP's goals and Google's plans for cloud-based printing is unveiled, webOS in printers is looking more and more like a very big deal.
The New York Times reports that the new web-connected printers with their own email addresses are set to hit the consumer market this month while products for business user will come this fall. HP promises that a myriad of devices like smartphones and tablets will be able to print documents and images without having to be connected to a printer.
With the new HP printers, users of iPhone OS or Android-based would simply need to email a photo to the printer's email address where it could be automatically printed and waiting when you get home from an event. The head of HP's printing operations is Vyomesh I. Joshi. Joshi said, "We think by next year more printing will be done from the Web than from word-processing applications."
