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HP angling for home entertainment pieReuters
Las Vegas, January 5, 2005 | 18:49 IST
Computer maker HP is pushing aggressively into television sales this year as it rolls out full lines of TVs, projectors, and home media servers, chief executive Carly Fiorina said on Tuesday.
The computer, server, printer and camera company with $80 billion in revenue wants a place at the home-entertainment table alongside the well-known names in the world of electronics, and Fiorina denied HP was late to the game.
"We think it's a big market and we think we're at the beginning of the market," Fiorina told Reuters in a phone interview ahead of this week's Consumer Electronics Show, where the company is introducing a range of products.
"I would argue HP is no newer an entrant than Philips or Panasonic are," she said.
HP will introduce 17 new television sets and TV projectors and a home-media hub that tunes cable television in the style of a traditional set-top box.
But the hub will do more, recording high-definition programming, burning DVDs and serving as a control center for digital photos and music throughout the house.Other computer makers, including prime rival Dell Inc and smaller ones like Gateway Inc have also moved beyond computers, although HP says its technology and integration sets it apart.
Traditional PC companies have seen margins grow ever tighter on regular machines and have embraced the concept of the "digital living room" as a way to expand their reach into the home, setting them up to compete head-to-head with the likes of Panasonic and Philips, who in turn are raising the bar on technology in their own products.
However, despite repeated references to the importance of prices in the consumer electronics business, Fiorina declined to name a figure or range on the new HP television line.
BABY STEPS
Last year at CES Fiorina set the table for Hewlett Packard's push into digital media with the announcement of products like an HP-badged Apple iPod portable music player and digital entertainment PCs.
She described the recent holiday season as "good" for mobile and entertainment products and said the time was right for HP to push deeper into displays and other products from its current offerings.
"If you want to be in the display business, the retail business requires a full lineup," Fiorina said. The company rolled out a 42-inch high-definition plasma television last August.
Fiorina declined to say if Hewlett Packard would push further into iPods, like an Hewlett Packard-branded iPod music player that displays color photos, but said that sort of product would fit the Hewlett Packard strategy.
"I think it's very logical for you to assume that we're going to continue to integrate music and photos to the maximum extent possible," Fiorina said.
In the meantime, over the next week, companies like Sony Corp, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and the aforementioned Matsushita Electrical-owned Panasonic and Philips will roll out their slates of 2005 products, all seeking to digitize the living room.
"Over the next year-and-a-half I think it will become increasingly clear who is leading and who is following," Fiorina said. HP also announced two new Digital Entertainment Center PCs running Windows Media Center 2005 Edition, a partnership with high-end consumer electronics retailer Tweeter and a digital rights management system for video with Philips called the Video Content Protection System.
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