HP unveils next-gen IT products in local market

HP officials at the launching ceremony

At the event, HP showcased some of its latest broad suite of products, which included desktop PCs, notebooks, handheld devices, colour Laserjet and Designjet printers, Scanjet scanners, Officejet all-in-one devices, Proliant servers and storage work arrays.

The launch was addressed by Steven Kim, general manager of customer solution group (CSG), Asia Emerging Countries (AEC). Bob Ang, general manager, Imaging and Printing Group (IPG), AEC and Thomas Chiam, director, Solutions Partners Organisation, AEC were also present at the occasion.

"As a global technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions, HP is focused on helping people apply technology in meaningful ways to their businesses, personal lives and communities," said Steven Kim.

Business Desktops
The new HP Compaq Business Desktops - dc7100, dx6100 and dx2000 - are designed or small and medium businesses (SMBs) enterprises, ranging from basic, mainstream and advanced level computing solutions.

"We simplified our business PC line to give customers a selection of desktops that meet a variety of business needs at every level and budget," boasted Joergen Jakobsen, vice president of Business PC, HP Personal Systems Group (PSG), Asia Pacific and Japan.

These new desktops come pre-loaded with the new Altiris Local Recovery Solution for PC backup, restoration and recovery. Desktops dc7100 and dx6100 series also include the Intel 915 Express platform. The dc7100 offers advanced security features with the HP ProtectTools Embedded Security Manager.

Business Notebooks
Two new business notebooks HP Compaq nx9040 and nc4010 were introduced at the event. Designed for mobile professionals, the nx9040 is equipped with wireless connectivity and long battery life, while nc4010 is a lightweight, ultra portable notebook that weighs only 1.59kg.

"HP delivers intelligently designed notebook PCs priced for the budgets of mobile customers in smaller businesses such as real estate agents and insurance adjustors to medium businesses with field sales teams," said Ted Clark, vice president of marketing, Mobile Computing, HP. "The nx9000 series features 802.11b/g wireless, so the customer will be connected wherever there is a HotSpot available," he added.

Hand Held Devices
To offer pocketsize productivity and enhanced digital entertainment capabilities at a great value, HP expanded the iPAQ Pocket PC lineup with the latest HP iPAQ rz1710, featuring integrated Personal Information Manager (PIM) and the iPAQ rx3400/3700 series Mobile Multimedia Companion, the first pocket PCs that allow users to view, capture, edit and print digital content.

The iPAQ rx3400/3700 series also includes Nevo Home Control software, allowing control of all home and office audio/video equipment with a single device. With the ability to control hundreds of consumer electronic devices, it works as a universal remote control.

Imaging and Printing
HP's initiative to aggressively drive colour mainstream across the market is worth mentioning as they declared the year 2004 as the 'Year Digital Colour Goes Mainstream'. The latest additions in the imaging and printing include:

- HP Colour LaserJet 2550: An affordable high-quality colour laser printer.

- HP Colour LaserJet 4650: A 21 pages-per-minute, in-line printer with Instant-on technology.

- HP ScanJet 5590: Digital flatbed scanner with a 50-page automatic document feeder with duplexing capabilities.

- HP OfficeJet 4255 all-in-one: Compact and affordable device with print, fax, scan, copy and phone capabilities.

- HP Photosmart R707: HP's first digital camera to feature HP Real Life Technologies, a series of technical advancements including HP Adaptive Light technology.

- HP DesignJet 30 and 130: Two large-format printing, six-ink and media systems for the graphic design, proofing and photography markets.

Servers and Storage
The next generation of HP Proliant servers ProLiant DL380 G4, DL360 G4, ML370 G4, ML350 G4 and BL20p G3 equipped with Intel Xeon processors were introduced at the event. These dual-processor servers running Windows and Linux also feature the Intel Extended Memory 64-bit Technology (Intel EM64T).

The industry's first storage array to support either SCSI or Serial ATA (SATA) disk enclosures behind a single controller shelf, the HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array (MSA) 1500 and MSA20, a low-cost high-capacity SATA disk drive storage enclosure were also introduced.

At a press conference following the launch, HP officials said that Bangladesh is one of the three focused countries among the emerging nations and has a bright future in terms of ICT growth. But in order to achieve that infrastructure development is essential. HP looks forward to expand their business in Bangladesh, which has a growing IT market.