Palo Alto (CA) – Hewlett-Packard (HP) said that it will stop building digital cameras and is looking for a “partner” to develop and sell digital cameras under the HP brand.

HP is looking to leave the digital camera business and the mainstream snapshot camera segment it is competing in and shift its focus to its “Print 2.0” strategy. The company said that it is currently “working to identify an original equipment manufacturer partner that would be licensed to design, source and distribute digital cameras under the HP brand.”  

HP will continue selling its own cameras through the holiday season and intends to have the partnership arrangement in place in the first half of 2008. The company hopes that the strategy shift will enable the company to dedicate more resources to home photo printing technologies, online photo services as well as the company’s retail photo-finishing business.

Depending on the research firm, it is estimated that somewhere between 80 and 100 million digital cameras were shipped in 2006, translating to a 22% year-over-year shipment growth.

However, most of today’s (percentage) shipment growth comes from digital SLR cameras, which gained more than 75% to about 3.5 million units between 2005 and 2006. And while the shipment volume of cameras keeps growing, the sales volume does not, according to the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA): The organization said that the 2006 volume was about $12.1 billion, up about 10% from 2005, but flat when compared to 2004. 

Good and bad

Nov 08, 2007 11:56     

This is both good and bad. The good new is that HP will no longer make bad camera that is simply outclassed by Japanese brand. The Bad news is that HP will start marketing and selling bad cameras made by Taiwan or Mainland China that is simply outclassed by Japanese brand.
Pei report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

At least HP stopped repacking the iPod

Nov 08, 2007 13:43     

I think....
enewmen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

good but...

Nov 08, 2007 15:48     

odd. At least they won't be designing crappy cameras anymore.
flasher702 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

yeh....

Nov 08, 2007 20:32     

their camera's sucked. Cannon cameras for the win!! HP computers for the KO!
cabose369 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Well, this sucks...

Nov 09, 2007 04:16     

if you just bought an HP camera. You know how they are on technical support and warranties already - just wait until they no longer manufacture your camera...
JohnDoe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

HP cameras were not all bad

Nov 09, 2007 09:41     

Their compact cameras were good enough for most consumers. I have an R707 which has held up rather well. SLR's are obviously better but overkill for most consumers who just want to replace their cheap film cameras.
jhansonxi report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

not all bad

Nov 09, 2007 10:54     

If they do get a Chinese company to make cameras for them, some are good and some are bad. It would depend on which company makes it: IMO. I have some cameras that were made in China that worked quite well and some that did not.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0