Company's Largest Consumer Product Rollout in History Sparks Digital Imaging Revolution -- Putting Traditional Photography on Alert NEW YORK--June 25, 2002--HP today unveiled its $1.2 billion investment to reset the imaging and printing market. Between now and early 2003, HP will roll out worldwide more than 50 new imaging and printing products offering consumers greater value and unparalleled ease of use. The company has invested $900 million in manufacturing, $125 million in research and development and $200 million in marketing to roll out the single largest consumer product launch in the company's history and drive digital imaging mainstream. "This announcement marks a defining moment in the evolution of HP's imaging and printing business," said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive officer. "Today's announcement is the upshot of a major R&D and manufacturing effort designed to make technology a more natural extension of how we live and work by engineering our products explicitly for simplicity and ease of use." "Today's announcement culminates a three-year investment to make the process of taking, printing and sharing photos easier and more affordable for consumers," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, HP Imaging and Printing Group. "This effort included completely redesigning our products and supplies to meet the emerging needs of consumers as digital imaging becomes pervasive." HP begins delivering on its investment with today's announcement of three new printers, the HP Deskjet 5550, 3820 and 3420 color inkjet printers. The new HP Deskjet 5550 color inkjet printer produces images that rival the quality of traditional photographs. It features up to six-ink printing with HP's exclusive color layering technology from Photoret IV and 4,800-optimized dots-per-inch (dpi) technology. Photoret IV enables the HP DeskJet 5550 color inkjet printer to produce more than 1.2 million colors that create images with natural, lifelike skin tones and bright, vibrant colors at a quality unmatched by any other personal printer available today. HP also announced two printers priced below $100 that address the increasing demand for affordable and reliable high-quality printing. They are the HP Deskjet 3420 color inkjet printer and the HP Deskjet 3820 color inkjet printer, which features 4,800-optimized dpi. IDC predicts that by 2005, more than 15 billion digital images will be printed in the United States and over one-third of U.S. households will own digital cameras. A recent InfoTrends study shows that 81 percent of people intending to purchase a digital camera expect to print their digital photos at home. HP invented thermal inkjet technology in 1979, and in 1984 the company produced the industry's first thermal inkjet printer, the HP ThinkJet printer. Since then, HP has continued to make personal printing better, easier and more accessible to consumers -- a strategy that has enabled HP to lead the printer market for more than 18 years. "Twenty years and 170 million inkjet printers later, HP continues to reinvent inkjet technology," said Angele Boyd, group vicepresident, Image Capture and Output Research, IDC. "By bringing higher levels of photo-quality printing to the lowest price points in its product line, HP reinforces its leadership not only in the high-end, but in the low-end segment as well." HP Deskjet 5550 Color Inkjet Printer The HP Deskjet 5550 color inkjet printer offers versatile photo and document printing with standard four-ink or optional six-ink color printing, fast speeds and convenient, innovative features such as borderless 4 x 6-inch photo printing and ink-backup mode. The printer prints laser-quality black text at up to 17 pages per minute (ppm) and color at up to 12 ppm on a wide variety of paper types and sizes. The HP Deskjet 5550 color inkjet printer ships with the new HP 56 Black inkjet print cartridge and the HP 57 Tri-color inkjet print cartridge, providing crisp black text and brilliant color, four-ink printing. Optional six-ink color printing is available with the separate purchase of the new HP 58 Photo inkjet print cartridge, which, when used with the HP 57 Tri-color inkjet print cartridge, provides six-ink, virtually grain-free photos with excellent fade resistance on photo paper. HP Deskjet 3820 Color Inkjet Printer The HP Deskjet 3820 color inkjet printer features 4,800-optimized dpi and print speeds of up to 12 ppm in black and 10 ppm in color.(2) With 4,800-optimized dpi, consumers can enjoy stunning photo quality and rich black text. In addition, users can save time and money with "smart" features such as the print-cancel button, an ink-level indicator and manual two-sided printing. The HP Deskjet 3820 color inkjet printer allows consumers to link multiple home computers to a single printer with optional HP Jetdirect wired and wireless print accessories. The HP Deskjet 3820 color inkjet printer is compatible with the HP 15 Black inkjet print cartridge and the HP 78 Tri-color inkjet print cartridge. HP Deskjet 3420 Color Inkjet Printer The HP Deskjet 3420 color inkjet printer offers families and personal users fast speeds and enhanced print quality with 2,400-dpi color printing at up to 10 ppm in black and eight ppm in color. Also, by using HP's specially developed inks and papers, consumers can print long-lasting photos to preserve their favorite memories. The printer features on-screen monitoring that saves consumers time and money by displaying a warning when the printer is low on ink, while the on-screen print-cancel button allows consumers to stop a job with the click of a button. The HP Deskjet 3420 color inkjet printer is compatible with the new HP 27 Black inkjet print cartridge, providing laser-quality black text for the home user, and the new HP 28 Tri-color inkjet print cartridge, providing brilliant photo quality and color graphics for the home user.