Perhaps the oddest tech news you’ll hear today, HP CEO Mark Hurd stated during the quarter’s earning conference call that HP expects “to leverage WebOS into a variety of form factors, including slates and Web-connected printers”.
What exactly is a WebOS enabled printer? I don’t think any of us know, and I suspect many people at HP have no clue either but it seems obvious that HP would want to put their recent acquisition into their biggest money maker. This would allow a WebOS enabled printer to print directly from the web using 3rd party apps, all from the printer’s WebOS console – thus having the potential to print documents without having to use a PC to execute the job.
Even though e-readers and tablets are gaining popularity, HP clearly sees paper – and hence the ink and toner consumables – to remain part of their key strategy.
“Printers are a significant business for HP–in the most recent quarter the HP imaging and printing division made $6.4 billion in revenue, out of the total of over $30 billion. So it’s not that crazy that they’d want to put its newest toy, WebOS, to work in that area.
But do printers need a mobile operating system? For HP, they do. The company has been pushing printers that are connected to the Web, like the PhotoSmart Premium TouchSmart Web printer. HP actually has an app store for these printers that allows users to download, for example, a Fandango or Snapfish app, and print movie tickets or photos directly from the printer over the Web.”
