Lyra Symposium - the HP Inkjet Rant

Another impression from the Lyra Imaging Symposium: HP is determined, obviously with their own best interests in mind, to promote what they view as the best hope for the future of the printing and imaging industry. While different technologies and product groups will logically be targeted at (hopefully) the most appropriate user groups, the pitch always depends on the product group association of the pitchmaster.

The topic in this case, ink jet technology, probably did not surprise too many participants. The partisanship of the presentation as well as the lack of strategic balance did, however, strike a number of attendees as notable. Glen Hopkins, VP/GM of Printing Technologies, was definitely focusing on "a bit" less than the full picture in his presentation describing the emerging battlefield for small and medium businesses.

Talking up inkjet and more than implicitly talking down laser, Hopkins addressed each of the perceived weaknesses of inkjet, obviously trying to make that technology more palatable to the general office user. Aside from the point that this particular audience is not really the group that needs to be persuaded, the lack of balance in the presentation revealed a hint of desperation in the strategy to move inkjet upmarket.

The discussion itself was right to the point, addressing the key historical problem areas of inkjet in the office: product reliability, image quality, speed, cost, and the infamous "laser bias." Notwithstanding the fact that inkjet speeds and feeds have definitely improved, along with numerous other key product metrics (along with parallel developments on the laser side), vendors do still have to deal with a well documented bias in the office for laser and against inkjet. Justified or not, it is a fact to deal with if you want to break that portion of the market open. And justified or not, the laser vendors will continue to leverage and exploit those prejudices to ensure that there is no quick shift of sentiments.

And in the final instance, the market, not the marketers, will decide. According to the presentation, inkjet technology is ready for mainstream business prime time. In the HP world, presumably they feel they can win either way on this emerging battlefied. But that thesis could have been formulated in a more strategically coherent fashion. And since there is nothing inevitable about this development, we will continue to track movements in this space closely.