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* the [[UDC (Utility Data Center)]]
* the [[UDC (Utility Data Center)]]
* the [[OpenView]] family of [[management software]]
* the [[OpenView]] family of [[management software]]
* the Storage (http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/prodserv/storage.html) product line, which includes business class and enterprise class data storage and protection products.
* the ProCurve [http://www.hp.com/rnd/index.htm] family of network switches, wireless access points, and routers.
* the ProCurve [http://www.hp.com/rnd/index.htm] family of network switches, wireless access points, and routers.
* the [[Indigo Digital Press]]
* the [[Indigo Digital Press]]

Revision as of 22:50, 12 January 2006

"HP" redirects here. For other uses, see HP (disambiguation).
Hewlett-Packard Company
Company typePublic (NYSE: HPQ)
IndustryComputer Systems and Computer Peripherals
FoundedPalo Alto, California (1939)
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, USA
Key people
Mark V. Hurd, CEO & President
Patricia C. Dunn, Chairman
Robert Wayman, CFO
ProductsComputer Monitors
Digital Cameras
Digital Imaging
Personal Computers
Printers
Revenue$79.905 billion USD (2004)
Number of employees
~151,000 (2004)
Websitewww.hp.com

The Hewlett-Packard Company NYSE: HPQ, commonly known as HP, is a very large global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. Its products are concentrated in the fields of computing, printing, and digital imaging. It also sells software and services.

Company history

From 1939 until the seventies

HP was founded (with a US$500 investment in a Palo Alto, CA garage) in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who had both graduated from Stanford University in 1934, as a manufacturer of test and measurement instruments. Their first product was a precision audio oscillator, the Model 200A. Their innovation was the use of a light bulb as a temperature stabilized resistor in a critical portion of the circuit. This allowed them to sell the Model 200A for $54.40 when competitors were selling less stable oscillators for over $200. Their company's name, Hewlett-Packard, was derived by their last names and had Bill not won the coin toss, the company today may have been known as Packard-Hewlett. One of the company's earliest customers was Walt Disney Productions, who bought eight Model 200B oscillators (at $71.50 each) for use in testing the Fantasound stereophonic sound system for the movie Fantasia.

First Computers

"The new Hewlett-Packard 9100A personal computer" is "ready, willing, and able ... to relieve you of waiting to get on the big computer."

HP is acknowledged by Wired magazine as the producer of the world's first personal computer, in 1968, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A. HP called it a desktop calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared". An engineering triumph at the time, the logic circuit was produced without any integrated circuits; the assembly of the CPU having been entirely executed in discrete components. The mathematical functions and programmability rival the most powerful scientific calculators of the present day. With CRT readout, magnetic card storage, and printer the price was around $5000.

The company earned global respect for a variety of products. They introduced the world's first handheld scientific electronic calculator in 1972 (the HP-35), the first handheld programmable in 1974 (the HP-65), the first alphanumeric, programmable, expandable in 1979 (the HP-41C), and the first symbolic and graphing calculator HP-28C. Like their scientific and business calculators, their oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and other measurement instruments have a reputation for sturdiness and usability (the latter products are now part of spin-off Agilent's product line). The company's design philosophy in this period was summarized as "design for the guy at the next bench".

HP is recognized as the symbolic founder of Silicon Valley, although it did not actively investigate semiconductor devices until a few years after the "Traitorous Eight" had abandoned William Shockley to create Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957. Hewlett-Packard's HP Associates division, established around 1960, developed semiconductor devices primarily for internal use. Instruments and calculators were some of the products using these devices.

The eighties and beyond

In 1984, HP introduced both inkjet and laser printers for the desktop. Along with its scanner product line, these have later been developed into successful multifunction products, the most significant being single-unit printer/scanner/copier/fax machines. As of 2003, HP's major competitors in this growing part of the home office market are Brother, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark. Another vendor of note who rivals HP printers is Dell, who rebrands and repackages Lexmark products.

In the 1990s, HP expanded their computer product line, which initially had been targeted at university, research, and business customers, to reach consumers. HP also grew through acquisitions, buying Apollo Computer in 1989, Convex Computer in 1995, and Compaq in 2002. Compaq itself had bought Tandem Computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-HP employees), and Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Following this strategy HP became a major player in desktops, laptops, and servers for many different markets. The buyout made HP the world's largest manufacturer of personal computers.

In 1987, the Palo Alto garage where Hewlett and Packard started their business was designated as a California State historical landmark. However, Agilent Technologies, not HP, bears the legacy of the original company founded in 1939, as evidenced by Agilent's portfolio of electronic instruments descended from HP's earliest products. Agilent was spun off from HP in 1999.

HPshopping.com was launched in 1998 as HP's direct-to-consumer e-commerce store, and in 1999 became incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2002, Compaq's direct-to-consumer e-commerce store, CompaqAtHome, joined hpshopping.com, creating a comprehensive, one-stop, on-line store for HP and Compaq home and home-office products.

Many long-time HP calculator users were surprised and disappointed when HP announced in March 2002 that the company would no longer manufacture financial and scientific calculators – a product line and, indeed, a market, that HP had started thirty years before. The decision was especially hard to fathom in light of the HP-48 graphing calculator range's success. However, despite its spring 2002 press release stating the opposite, the company nevertheless returned to the market during the fall of 2003 with several new models (flagship: HP-49g+) competing against similar offerings from competitor Texas Instruments. The extremely popular HP 12c financial calculator, introduced in 1981, still remains in production today.

HP today

In 2002, Hewlett-Packard merged with Compaq, a controversial move intended to make the company the personal computing leader. The merger opposition was led by Walter Hewlett, son of original founder William Hewlett.

Hewlett-Packard is a supporter of Open Source and Linux. Some HP employees, such as Linux CTO and former Debian Project Leader Bdale Garbee actively contribute – a few have official Open Source job responsibilities. Many others participate in the Open Source community as unpaid volunteers.

Hewlett-Packard also works extensively with Microsoft and uses technology from most major software and hardware vendors.

File:Pavilion a706n.jpg
The HP Pavilion a706n was a budget-priced PC with 160GB hard drive and 512MB memory, including a AMD Athlon 3000+ processor

Other HP products/technologies include:

A modern mid-range HP Laptop; the HP Pavilion zv6115EA.

HP has a successful line of printers, scanners, digital cameras, calculators, PDAs, servers, workstations, and home-small business computers. Until recently HP even offered a re-branded version of Apple's famous iPod. HP today promotes itself as not just being a hardware and software company, but also one that offers a full range of services to architect, implement and support today's IT infrastructure.

In 2003, HP had 140,000 employees world wide. From July 1999 to February 9, 2005, the chairman and CEO was Carly Fiorina, the first woman ever to serve as CEO of a company included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Amid controversy over her performance and threats of reductions in her responsibilities by the HP Board of Directors, Fiorina was eventually forced to resign. The current non-executive chairman is Patricia C. Dunn. She was given this responsibility in February 2005 after Ms. Fiorina left the company.

Unlike previous CEOs, Mark Hurd the new CEO of HP does not hold the position of Chairman.

Management

Diversity

Hewlett-Packard received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2003, the second year of the report. In addition, the company was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.

Hewlett-Packard is also involved in the NEPAD e-school programme to provide all schools in Africa with computers and internet access.

Ad campaigns

A television ad campaign for Hewlett-Packards digital photography (titled "You + HP: digital photography") has been noted for its simplistic special effects and choice of music. It won "Campaign of the Year" from Adweek magazine.

Songs used in "You + HP" Campaign

Competitors

Major competitors of HP in the PC business include:

Major competitors of HP in the server business include:

See also

HP
Data
Third-party
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