HP to offload its digicam business

Today HP announced that after the holiday shopping season of 2007 it would be making a significant change to its digital camera business. HP says it is currently seeking an OEM partner to take over the design, souring and distribution of HP branded digital cameras. The change is expected to occur in the first half of 2008 and HP says it will continue selling it own cameras through the holiday season.

HP says this change is to allow it to accelerate its investment in Print 2.0 initiatives announced in May of 2007. When HP’s Print 2.0 initiative was introduced, HP executive vice president of Imaging and Printing Vyomesh Joshi outlined Print 2.0 with three key areas of focus. Print 2.0 intends to make it easier to print from websites and bring new printing capabilities to online properties.

When Konica-Minolta offloaded its digital camera business in 2006, it sold the entire works to Sony and the Minolta name on digital cameras went the way of the dodo. HP intends to keep the HP brand name on the products and simply offload the work behind designing and building digital cameras.