HP Ships 30 Millionth Laser Printer
Palo Alto, Calif. — Hewlett-Packard Company has announced it recently shipped its 30 millionth
HP LaserJet printer. Introduced in 1984, the HP LaserJet printer revolutionized the desktop printing
market. Sales for the printer hit the one million mark in 1988 and rapidly increased in the late 1980s. By 1994,
HP had sold 10 million laser printers.
"HP credits its success in the hardcopy market to solid relationships with channel partners and
to overwhelming customer satisfaction," said Carolyn Ticknor, HP vice president and general manager of
the LaserJet Solutions Group. "HP recognizes that its customers are seeking solutions that maximize
efficiency, lower total cost of ownership and give them a competitive edge, and we expect color printing to play a
major role in the company's next printer milestone."
HP's commitment to provide leading-edge network printing solutions is demonstrated by the
recent additions to the company's product offerings. These additions include the HP LaserJet 4000 printer, the
HP LaserJet 5000 wide-format printer, the HP LaserJet 8000 printer, the HP Mopier 240, HP JetDirect
print servers and industry-leading peripheral-management software. HP expects that these new
award-winning workgroup and departmental solutions — along with HP's current product offerings, such as the HP
Enhanced Color LaserJet 5M printer — will help expand HP's leadership as a global provider of
hardcopy products.
HP's current color laser printer, the HP Color LaserJet 5M printer, is the world's most popular
color laser printer. According to Ziff-Davis StoreBoard, a La Jolla, Calif.-based independent source for sales
data from corporate, retail and mail-order distribution channels, HP is the market-share leader, with 62.4
percent (May 1998) of the color laser-printer market. HP believes this market will gain popularity as color
printing technology matures and the use of complementary technologies, such as the Internet, continues to grow.
Industry research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts dramatic growth in the
worldwide color laser market. "We expect the desktop color laser segment to be the fastest-growing segment of
the computer printer market," said Angele Boyd, vice president of worldwide peripherals research with
IDC. "Based on projected unit shipments between 1997 and 2002, the color laser printer segment will enjoy a
56 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) during this period."
HP credits much of its market success to the fact that the company currently provides the broadest
suite of commercial hardcopy products offered by any single
manufacturer, including ink jet and laser
printers, mopiers, scanners, all-in-one devices and networking
solutions.
For further information, visit the company website at www.hp.com.
This article originally appeared in the September 1998 issue of Recharger.