"HP" redirects here. For other uses, see HP (disambiguation).

The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is one of the world's largest information technology corporations. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States, it has a global presence in the fields of computing, printing, and digital imaging, and also sells software and services.

Company history

From 1939 until the seventies

HP was founded as a manufacturer of test and measurement instruments with a US$500 investment in a Palo Alto, CA garage in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They had both graduated from Stanford University in 1934. Their first product was a precision audio oscillator, the Model 200A. Their innovation was the use of a small night-light bulb as a temperature dependent resistor in a critical portion of the circuit. This allowed them to sell the Model 200A for $54.40 when competitors were selling less stable oscillators for over $200. Their company's name, Hewlett-Packard, was derived from their last names and had Bill not won a coin toss, the company today could have been known as Packard-Hewlett. One of the company's earliest customers was Walt Disney Productions, who bought eight Model 200B oscillators (at $71.50 each) for use in testing the Fantasound stereophonic sound system for the movie Fantasia.

First Computers

HP is acknowledged by Wired magazine as the producer of the world's first personal computer, in 1968, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A. HP called it a desktop calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared". An engineering triumph at the time, the logic circuit was produced without any integrated circuits; the assembly of the CPU having been entirely executed in discrete components. With CRT readout, magnetic card storage, and printer the price was around $5000.

The company earned global respect for a variety of products. They introduced the world's first handheld scientific electronic calculator in 1972 (the HP-35), the first handheld programmable in 1974 (the HP-65), the first alphanumeric, programmable, expandable in 1979 (the HP-41C), and the first symbolic and graphing calculator HP-28C. Like their scientific and business calculators, their oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and other measurement instruments have a reputation for sturdiness and usability (the latter products are now part of spin-off Agilent's product line). The company's design philosophy in this period was summarized as "design for the guy at the next bench".

HP is recognized as the symbolic founder of Silicon Valley, although it did not actively investigate semiconductor devices until a few years after the "Traitorous Eight" had abandoned William Shockley to create Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957. Hewlett-Packard's HP Associates division, established around 1960, developed semiconductor devices primarily for internal use. Instruments and calculators were some of the products using these devices.

The eighties and beyond

In 1984, HP introduced both inkjet and laser printers for the desktop. Along with its scanner product line, these have later been developed into successful multifunction products, the most significant being single-unit printer/scanner/copier/fax machines. As of 2003, HP's major competitors in this growing part of the home office market are Brother, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark. Another vendor of note who rivals HP printers is Dell, who rebrands and repackages Lexmark products.

In the 1990s, HP expanded their computer product line, which initially had been targeted at university, research, and business customers, to reach consumers. HP also grew through acquisitions, buying Apollo Computer in 1989, Convex Computer in 1995, and Compaq in 2002. Compaq itself had bought Tandem Computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-HP employees), and Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Following this strategy HP became a major player in desktops, laptops, and servers for many different markets. The buyout made HP the world's largest manufacturer of personal computers.

In 1987, the Palo Alto garage where Hewlett and Packard started their business was designated as a California State historical landmark. However, Agilent Technologies, not HP, bears the legacy of the original company founded in 1939, as evidenced by Agilent's portfolio of electronic instruments descended from HP's earliest products. Agilent was spun off from HP in 1999.

HPshopping.com was launched in 1998 as HP's direct-to-consumer e-commerce store, and in 1999 became incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2002, Compaq's direct-to-consumer e-commerce store, CompaqAtHome, joined hpshopping.com, creating a comprehensive, one-stop, on-line store for HP and Compaq home and home-office products.

Many long-time HP calculator users were surprised and disappointed when HP announced in March 2002 that the company would no longer manufacture financial and scientific calculators – a product line and, indeed, a market, that HP had started thirty years before. The decision was especially hard to fathom in light of the HP-48 graphing calculator range's success. However, despite its spring 2002 press release stating the opposite, the company nevertheless returned to the market during the fall of 2003 with several new models (flagship: HP-49g+) competing against similar offerings from competitor Texas Instruments. The extremely popular HP-12C financial calculator, introduced in 1981, still remains in production today.

Manufacturing---- In 1994, HP decided to outsource its manufacturing to third-party vendors and oversea countries to lower costs and raise profits. Today, desktop computers are assembled in Guadalajara, Mexico where HP employs approximately 1,500 workers. Notebook computers are assembled in China from third-party vendors. Servers and workstations are still assembled in the United States.

During the Iran-Iraq war, HP was among the companies shipping militarily useful technology to Iraq through its Ohio branch according to the Financial Times [1].

HP today

Hewlett-Packard is a supporter of FOSS and Linux. Some HP employees, such as Linux CTO and former Debian Project Leader Bdale Garbee actively contribute and have official Open Source job responsibilities. Many others participate in the Open Source community as unpaid volunteers. HP is also known in the (GNU/)Linux community for releasing drivers for many of their printers under the GNU GPL.

Hewlett-Packard also works extensively with Microsoft and uses technology from most major software and hardware vendors.

Other HP products/technologies include:

• Inkjet and LaserJet printers, consumables and related products.
• the HP-UX and Tru64 operating systems (two UNIX implementations, the second from DEC)
• the OpenVMS large-scale, highly-available server operating system (from DEC)
• the NonStop high-reliability architecture and operating system (from Tandem Computers)
• the PA-RISC processor architecture
• the IA64 processor architecture (with Intel)
• the Alpha processor architecture (from DEC)
• the HP 9000 line of Servers and workstations
• the ProLiant line of x86 based servers (from Compaq)
• the UDC (Utility Data Center)
• the OpenView family of management software
• the Storage [2] product line, which includes business class and enterprise class data storage and protection products.
• the ProCurve [3] family of network switches, wireless access points, and routers.
• the Indigo Digital Press
• the HP Web Jetadmin printer management software

HP has a successful line of printers, scanners, digital cameras, calculators, PDAs, servers, workstations, and home-small business computers. Until recently HP even offered a re-branded version of Apple's famous iPod. HP today promotes itself as not just being a hardware and software company, but also one that offers a full range of services to architect, implement and support today's IT infrastructure.

In 2003, HP had 140,000 employees world wide. From July 1999 to February 9, 2005, the chairman and CEO was Carly Fiorina, the first woman ever to serve as CEO of a company included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Amid controversy over her performance and threats of reductions in her responsibilities by the HP Board of Directors, Fiorina was eventually forced to resign. The current non-executive chairman is Patricia C. Dunn. She was given this responsibility in February 2005 after Ms. Fiorina left the company. Unlike previous CEOs, Mark Hurd the new CEO of HP does not hold the position of Chairman.

Under HP's current restructuring program, HP began reducing its workforce to lower its costs. By 2006, HP experienced a record profit of $1.5 billion in just one quarter.

Management

• Founder and CEO: David Packard (CEO: 1964 - 1969)
• Founder and CEO: William Hewlett (CEO: 1969 - 1978)
• CEO: John A. Young (1978 - 1992)
• CEO: Lewis Platt (1992 - July 18, 1999)
• Chairman and CEO: Carly Fiorina (July 19, 1999 - February 9, 2005, Appointed chairman in 2000)
• Interim CEO: Robert P. Wayman (February 10, 2005 - March 28, 2005)
• CEO: Mark Hurd (March 29, 2005 - current)

Diversity

Hewlett-Packard received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2003, the second year of the report. In addition, the company was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.

Hewlett-Packard is also involved in the NEPAD e-school program to provide all schools in Africa with computers and internet access.

Ad campaigns

A television ad campaign for Hewlett-Packards digital photography (titled "You + HP: digital photography") has been noted for its simple special effects and choice of music. It won "Campaign of the Year" from Adweek magazine.

Songs used in "You + HP" Campaign

• "Picture Book" by The Kinks
• "Out of the Picture" by The Robins
• "Pictures of You" by The Cure
• "The Rainbow" by The Apples in Stereo
• "Across the Universe" by The Beatles

Acquisitions

Data Systems, Inc.

A small 5-person company called Data Systems, Inc. Owned by a chemical manufacturer, Union Carbide, who failed in their diversification efforts, HP bought the group and this helped to launch the HP 2116A in 1966. A computer designed to automate the collection and processing of data from the company’s test and measurement devices, it marked HPs entry into the growing computer industry.

Apollo

In 1989, HP Acquired Apollo computer for $476 million. HP was able to achieve a growth in market share after the merger; with the market at the time valued at $4.1 billion and the fastest-growing area of the market.

Compaq

In 2002, Hewlett-Packard merged with Compaq, a controversial move intended to make the company the personal computing leader. The merger opposition was led by Walter Hewlett, son of original founder William Hewlett.

AppIQ

In October of 2005, Hewlett-Packard acquired the private company AppIQ (short for "Application IQ"). The company was founded in 2001 by Ash Ashutosh and David Chang, and offered several digital storage solutions. The company had employed up to 235 people by June 2005.

Environment

HP have been criticized by Greenpeace, among others. Greenpeace and other environmental groups have alleged HP of poor environmental standards, specifically in relation to the elimination of hazardous substances from products as specified by the European Union's RoHS guidelines for brominated flame retardants and PVC. Greenpeace is also alleging HP of not doing enough to recycle computers and other technology equipment.

Greenpeace's criticism of the technology industry is not limited exclusively to HP, as competitors such as Dell and Apple have also come under fire for alleged similar practices.

Competitors

Major competitors of HP in the computer business include:

• Apple Computer, Inc.
• Dell, Inc
• Gateway, Inc.
• Lenovo (Purchased IBM's Non-server Personal Computer Business)
• Sony
• Toshiba

Major competitors of HP in the server business include:

• Sun Microsystems
• IBM
• Dell, Inc

See also

• List of Hewlett-Packard products
• Packard Bell - A similarly named but autonomous company.

External links

HP

• HP corporate homepage
• HP online store
• HP History and Facts
• HP Open Source portal
• HP Linux portal
• HP Calculators
• Hewlett-Packard Labs
• Product Return & Recycling

HP-sponsored Open Source Projects

• HP Linux Common Operating Environment (LinuxCOE)
• HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP)

Company Information & History

• Yahoo - Company Profile
• Forbes - Company Information
• BusinessWeek - Corporate Snapshot
• The HP Way HP's statement of the HP Way, circa 1992. (HP Alumni Association)
• The rise and fall of the HP Way by Jocelyn Dong, with Pam Sturner (Online Edition of the Palo Alto Weekly, April 10, 2002)
• The HP Calculator Wiki
• The Museum of HP Calculators
• HP Computer Museum
• HP History Links Links to sites and articles on HP history. (HP Alumni Association)
• Acquisitions and DivestituresDates when HP acquired and divested companies. (HP Alumni Association)

Alumni Associations

• HP Alumni Association Non-profit; independent of HP. Open to current employees within three months of their last working day.
• Digital Alumni Share the memories of the past as well as the adventures of the future

Third Party Technology sites

• Linux on Hewlett-Packard laptops
• The OpenPA Project - resource for information on PA-RISC based computers from HP and other vendors