Introduction
Hewlett-Packard Company officially called HP is an American multinational company initially created for electronic and instrumentation which has evolved towards computer software and multimedia. It is one of the 40 biggest companies of the world. Its main products are printers and peripheral devices, computers of any sizes (pocket computers, laptops, home computers as well as servers and services to other companies. The company has its headquarter at Palo Alto in the Silicon Valley in California.
In 2008, the annual turnover was about 118 billion dollars and HP was the first computer maker of the world, before IBM and Dell. HP produces approximately half of the printers in the world, which represents a quarter of its turnover.
Creation
January the first of 1939, the company Hewlett-Packard was founded in Palo Alto by two friends, engineers in electronics from Stanford University, William Hewlett and David Packard. The company was created in a garage, a few kilometers from San Francisco, in California. They first began with 585 dollars. For the story, the two entrepreneurs flipped a coin to choose if the company will be named Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett, Bill wan.
The beginning
At first, Hewlett-Packard devised, make and commercialize trial and measure instruments with their new product which is an audio precision oscillator with prices lower than the concurrence. Their first client was Walt Disney Pictures which served to synchronize the sound effects in the film Fantasia.
1940 to 1970: from instrumentation to computer devices
Little by little HP finds out that the acquisition of data is essential when we possess numerous machines of measurement. From that point, HP develops its first microcomputers and home computers dedicated to data treatment. This will be done in two parts:
In 1966 HP produces its first microcomputer.
In 1968, HP produces programmable calculators.
Informatique, périphériques et services des années