PALO ALTO, Calif., June 7, 2001 Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) today announced its entry into the commercial printing market with a digital color printing press that delivers customers professional quality while meeting the demand for short-run, personalized print jobs. The HP Digital Press 6600 is the first product from HP's imaging and printing business that expands its leadership beyond inkjet and laser printing to include production color digital offset printing. "The introduction of the HP Digital Press 6600 is the first step in a company-wide initiative to give customers the ability to target and customize their business communications much more accurately than they have before," said Bill McGlynn, vice president, HP Commercial Printing Solutions. "Blending HP's information technology expertise with the digital printing workflow will provide exceptional value to print service providers." Benefits of the HP Digital Press 6600 include: * The striking visual impact of digital offset print quality, including up to six process colors, custom colors and high-fidelity printing; * Quick turnaround -- no plates, no film, no press preparation time and materials to worry about; * Operating software which enables a user to prioritize, interrupt and resume jobs and accept submissions directly from company intranets; * The flexibility to enable one-to-one marketing; and * Cost-effective short runs -- the run length of print job can be as few as one. HP also announced today its first HP Digital Press 6600 corporate customer -- Colourcare Group, the largest photofinishing company in the United Kingdom. Colourcare plans to expand its business opportunities with the sophisticated document customization technology that the HP Digital Press 6600 offers. "The HP Digital Press 6600 will enable us to transform our offering to our rapidly expanding estate agent (realtor) business," said Chris Sheath, managing director, Colourcare. "Not only will we be able to simplify our workflow processes and reduce costs, but we have the confidence of working with HP, which brings more than 20 years of networking and printing expertise to the table." "Print service providers must adapt to the impact of digital printing products on their businesses," said Charles A. Pesko Jr., managing director, CAP Ventures. "Our market forecast shows the retail value of production color printing growing at a 26 percent compound annual growth rate, from $5 billion in 2000 to more than $16 billion in 2005. This rapidly growing market provides many new opportunities for those companies like HP that understand the underlying economics, processes and requirements. HP is well positioned to break new ground in this marketplace." The HP Digital Press 6600 uses liquid electro-photography (LEP) technology, which combines a digitally powered laser imaging system with the use of ultra-small ink particles and a liquid transport system. Pricing and Availability The HP Digital Press 6600 is available now in the United Kingdom and Spain. It is expected to ship in the United States this summer with a base model at an estimated U.S. price of under $200,000.