HP to Say Goodbye to Camera Manufacturing

Hewlett Packard is not the proud manufacturer of the most capable digital cameras on the market, but they sure aren't making the worst products either. Their models usually offer good features at a reasonable price, but apparently manufacturing your own cameras has lost its profitability (How do Canon, Nikon and some other smaller players on the market do it?)

HP has just announced that "it will seek an alternative business model for its HP-branded cameras and shift resources toward its Print 2.0 growth initiatives". In other words, they want somebody else to design, manufacture and distribute HP-branded digital cameras. The company is hoping that the partnership will be ready by the first half of 2008.

The press release also informs that original HP digital cameras will continue to be available during the holiday season.

The aforementioned Print 2.0, announced in May 2007, includes "furthering HP's leadership position in home photo printing and online photo services, while accelerating the company's retail photo-finishing business".

According to the same press release, "the company's Print 2.0 strategy focuses on three areas: delivering a next-generation digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial markets; making it easier to print from the web; and, extending HP's digital content creation and publishing platforms across all customer segments."

Well, there you have it. HP will no longer manufacture the Photosmart point and shoots, but this doesn't mean you won't see them anymore. You will, but you might not be as confident knowing that they are manufactured by some obscure company.

On the other hand, this might be good for other players on the market, such as Casio and Kodak, that will get some of HP's point and shoot market share.

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