Hewlett Packard also known as HP is one of the few printer manufacturers that are not based in Japan but headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company which was started by William Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939 in a 1 car garage was up until 2010 the world's leading PC manufacturer, only losing its position to Apple in 2011. Hewlett Packard worked on a range of electronic products in their early years later focusing on high-quality measurement and electronic test equipment such as voltmeters, thermometers, frequency counters, signal generators and wave analysers. HP are often recognised as the founder of the famous Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California and in the 60's partnered with Sony to develop and market several high quality electronic products in Japan which lead to the development of the mini computer. In 1968 they released the world's first mass produced personal computer named the Hewlett-Packard 9100A. In 1984 HP released their first inkjet and laser printers for use with their personal computers. During the 90's HP grew by purchasing other computer manufacturing companies and producing leading edge technology. In 2002 HP and another leading computer manufacture Compaq had merged into 1 company. By 2010 HP was the largest computer manufacture and a leading supplier of printers to both home and business customers. |