The US company Hewlett-Packard (short form: HP) was founded in 1939 by William Hewlett and David Packard in Palo Alto, California, where it is headquartered today. The company is considered the cradle of Silicon Valley, a region in which numerous well-known technology companies have settled. Among them are the likes of Google, Yahoo, AMD, Intel, Cisco, NVIDIA and Apple.
Hewlett-Packard is the world's largest manufacturer of test and measurement instruments and a market leader for personal computers (PC), calculators and laser and inkjet printers. Since November the 1st 2015, Hewlett-Packard has been split into two separate companies, in the HP Inc. (HP) and Hewlett-Packard Electronics (HPE). Here, HP continues to focus on the field of PC and printer, while HPE focused on servers, storage and networks.
HP has a specific vision and is for anyone to develop technologies and manufacture products that make life simpler. In exactly this vision is also the company's motivation. It's about constantly making new inventions to improve and renew the world.
The first product, which led Hewlett-Packard on the market, was the HP200A, an audio frequency generator, which still was developed in the garage of the two founders in Palo Alto. The Walt Disney Studios was one of the company's first customers and acquired for the film "Fantasia" immediately 8 of such HP200A.
In 1964, the company introduced the first portable atomic clock on cesium based on the market. In 1972 the first scientific calculator, the HP-35 and in 1980 the first Hewlett-Packard PC. In 1984, the company's another success was with the development and manufacture of the first ink-jet printer for domestic use, the HP ThinkJet. This was based on thermal inkjet base, which triggered the dot matrix printers soon expire. In 1987, Hewlett-Packard finally the color printer HP PaintJet on the market, allowing the company secured its place at the forefront of computer technology.
In 1999, the company split for the first time in two independent companies. It remained the range printer, computer and imaging at Hewlett-Packard, while the field of electronic components, medical equipment, test and measurement over went to Agilent Technologies. In the following years, Hewlett-Packard acquired some technology companies such Synstar, the Triaton Group, EDS and 3Com and merged with the computer maker Compaq, which the company also secured its market position.
The product range of the company HP Inc. also includes laptops and tablets, desktops, printers, displays, Ink and toner as well as various computer accessories. The company Hewlett-Packard Electronics offers various servers (rack server, tower server and blade servers), storage devices, network equipment (switches, routers, controllers and access points) as well as different software.