Each year various industry analysts get invited to a range of supplier events, where the suppliers outline their future plans and sometimes give information about future products. These events however are really public relations events that endeavor to convince the analysts of the benefits of the suppliers’ business approach with the hope the analysts will recommend the suppliers’ products and services to their customers.

The interest is in Indigo and HP Scitex, but mainstream HP knows little about these two companies, and they don’t really appear to be of mainstream interest to HP. HP is a consumer and corporate IT company. Graphic arts markets are fairly low in their radar screen.

The latest of these events I have attended is the HP European Analysts Summit held in London earlier this month. Just prior to this HP had also held a European Laboratories Event in Paris where a large number of the press were given a somewhat similar view of the future of HP’s products. Unfortunately I was away in Japan at the time and could not go to Paris.