hp

Hewlett Packard or HP was the brainchild of two students at Stanford University, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, they founded HP in 1939. HP's first effort was built in a garage at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, California, and was an audio oscillator which is a test instrument used by sound engineers. One of HP's first customers was the Walt Disney Studios who purchased eight oscillators to help with production of the sound system for the movie Fantasia, but by 1940 Dave and Bill had outgrown the space and moved on.

By 1989 after the garage had become a designated landmark by the city of Palo Alto and a California Registered Landmark, it was registered as the Birthplace of Silicone Valley. Today the garage, the birthplace of HP, has been restored by them and a rededication ceremony took place in December 2005. From such humble beginnings the Hewlett Packard technology giant evolved. Today, revenues in the fiscal year ended 31st October 2005 reached $86.7 billion. More than 151,000 people are employed by HP, and the company does business in more than 171 countries.

Manufacture and distribution of printers is a major part of the HP business. In the year 2004, 43 million printers were sent out, or to put another way, one printer every second of the day! HP design and produce a full range of computer and associated products. These include desktops and work stations, for home and office. Desktop pc's for business, blade pc, point of sale equipment, monitors and notebooks or 'laptops'. HP has always been to the forefront in calculators producing the first one to print in Japanese in 1970. For a company that produces one printer every second you would expect them to be number one in the field. They are globally number one in the inkjet, all-in-one, and single function printers, mono and colour printers, large format printing, scanners, print servers and ink and laser supplies.

Large oaks from little acorns grow!