History of HP

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What many people don?t know about Hewlett Packard (HP) ? the popular computer manufacturing giant ? is that the company is actually quite old by American standards. Its influence spans over nearly six decades. With the company?s humble beginnings, HP has grown into a computer empire influencing several countries and industries over the course of their existence. In fact, many other popular computer companies and competitors have developed innovative technology based on patents pioneered by HP decades ago.

The Beginning

HP was co-founded in 1935 by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett, two Stanford University graduates with advanced degrees in electrical engineering. Like many tech companies, HP actually started in a garage just outside of Palo Alto, CA. The company was founded during a fellowship with Stanford professor, Frederick Terman. Terman was also the initial investor for HP. In 1939, Terman gave the new technology company $538. In naming the company, Packard and Hewlett tossed a coin as to whether the company would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. The coin toss resulted in the company?s current nomenclature, Hewlett-Packard. HP became a corporation by 1947, and by 1957 HP was a publicly traded company.

The Early Years

In the early years, HP lacked a product focus. In fact, the company began by designing and manufacturing a wide range of products including but not limited to signal generators, oscilloscopes, volt meters and electronic thermometers. Shortly after this early period, HP would design and manufacture the world?s first business computers, the HP 2100, HP 1000, HP 9800 and the HP 250 microcomputers. From here, HP would found what is now called Silicon Valley in the bay area of Northern California just outside of San Francisco. From then on, HP would revolutionize the computing industry with the emergence of desktop, laptop and mobile computing technology that would change forever the business approach to document management.

Popular Products

Perhaps the most popular, or at least the most widely known products are their large line of desktop, laptops and computers which are now stocked by many companies including Equanet. This includes the Dimension line of desktops, the Pavilion line of desktops and laptops. HP also developed a popular line of physical servers, which includes the MediaSmart line of servers. HP is also well known for their lines of InkJet and LaserJet printers. Recently they have delved into the mobile and smart phone market by purchasing Palm, and developing the smart phone operating system called WebOS.

Their influence doesn?t end at hardware. They have been developing cloud computing systems for a long time with the use of virtual server technology. Their focus in the cloud is with Software as a Service technology, and education for medium to large enterprise companies.

The Future of Hewlett Packard

As with many computer hardware companies, there is an intensified emphasis on both green and cloud computing solutions. This means that HP is likely to create and develop more cloud-based solutions for the enterprise market, and move more towards diskless computing. This will allow the company to both cut costs, and remain an innovative force in the global computer hardware solutions market.

Source: http://www.informationgateway.org/history-hewlett-packard/

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