HP introduces touch-enabled photo printers

MANILA, Philippines - The psychology of touch, scientifically proven to trigger positive feelings of trust, confidence and affinity, also wields its magic even when touching something as cold as a photo printer. HP, with its fresh line of touch-enabled Photosmart printers, hopes to translate the same experience to its customers who will find in the new Photosmarts a “Magic Frame” touch screen running on HP’s new TouchSmart user interface.

Each of the four new All-In-One HP Photosmart printers has the Magic Frame screen that, in one touch of a finger, shows contextual buttons that light up when in use — made possible by multi-touch capable systems and software that react to the lightest touch of a finger.

With this highly intuitive touch screen, HP expects its consumers to be able to more conveniently display, edit and print photos as well as copy, scan and print documents.

HP designed the new Photosmart line-up to better meet the needs of a growing number of consumers for touch technology in their devices. Market research firm Gartner projects that the capacitive touch-screen and touch-button controller segment will continue to grow and reach 1.3 billion units by 2012, a 44-percent compounded annual growth rate.

“Since HP introduced its first consumer touch-screen printer in 2006, our R&D teams have drawn from extensive customer insights and leading-edge touch-screen technology to develop a new TouchSmart user interface that will make everyday printing easy and enjoyable,” said Jenny Sotto-Siquioco, country general manager of HP Philippines’ Imaging and Printing Group. “More importantly, we will be leading the industry in making TouchSmart technology available in our full line-up of new HP Photosmart printers.”

HP executives claim that HP today has more touch-screen printers than any other brand.

Touch down

It was in 2006 when HP first incorporated touch into its Photosmart line. According to Steve Breidenbach, Ph.D., HP’s Imaging and Printing Group Experience Design Master, “incorporating touch into HP’s devices is a big step forward in adapting technology to better fit into people’s lives, so they don’t have to adapt to technology.”

“The current Photosmart line-up has a far more user-friendly and dynamic graphical interfaces that make printing directly from the printer far more instinctive than before. We continued to innovate by making the TouchSmart interface simple and natural to use, and we have even made the entire printing experience more compelling by offering warm colors, photo realistic graphics and quality sounds,” said Breidenbach.

The expanded Photosmart portfolio includes the HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One (priced at P10,490), the HP Photosmart Plus All-in-One (at P7,990), the HP Photosmart C4780 (at P6,490), and the HP Photosmart C4680 (at P4,990).

This new family of photo printers also features one-touch wireless set-up, a sleek new piano black design, and up to 30 percent reduced energy consumption compared to previous models.