HP Labs 2007: Digital pics to change forever

HP says it will reinvent the way you keep your digital photos - for good. A shift will occur in the way your photos are printed as well as the way they are stored. That's according to the head of HP's printing and imaging group in his introduction to HP's Labs technology event today, here in Lisbon.

The company wants to make it far easier to print from websites and to enable prints to be ordered online. The company also wants to extend its Snapfish image-storing service as well as increase the amount of digital prints made.

"49 trillion pages are printed every year and only 9 per cent [of those] are digital," said Vyomesh Joshi. He has previously spoken of the concept of 'Print 2.0', something he referred to again today.

HP 's Print 2.0 strategy is to make printing "relevant and empowering as...content increasingly moves from the desktop to the web".

During his speech, Joshi said that "distribution is changing with the internet. There are [now] one billion people connected and content distribution has been transformed".

HP says it seeks to capture a "significant share" of the 53 trillion digital pages estimated to be printed in 2010 alone - an opportunity it values at more than $296 billion (about £148.2bn).

"Today, we're introducing a new era in printing. We're redefining what it means to print and further accelerating the transformation from analogue to digital printed pages," said Joshi at the launch of 'Print 2.0'.

"In today's world of 'mashed media' - words, pictures, video, songs - the question becomes 'How will people publish this content?' Print 2.0 is the answer. This vision centres on empowering our customers to create and consume their content, their way."