HP plans Web-connected printers

HP late last year introduced its first Web-connected home printer, which has touch screen, which can download applications so that a user could more easily print out for example, a daily crossword puzzle or children’s coloring page without using a separate computer.

“The usage of that printer is going up by double digits,” Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President Imaging & Printing Group, told Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco.

Joshi said a new Web printing initiative was in the works but declined to say when or what it would be. However, he said the first Web-connected printer would be followed by more. “We have launched it, we have learned, and now we will lead,” he said.

HP plans to take advantage of Web OS software in its printers when it completes it previously announced acquisition of Palm Inc, he said. The initiative would not be limited to consumer products, he added.