Ain't Print Grand?

@ Beyond-Print
HP ekes out a profit in a tough quarter:

"In IPG, the part of HP that includes Indigo, sales were $6 billion, down 19% compared with Q1 of last year. Still, IPG managed a profit of $1.1 billion. IPG’s financial information is dominated by sales of printer supplies, which account for 68% of the Group’s sales.
. . .
There was one note about Indigo among the financial information: the number of pages printed on Indigo machines was up 25% from Q1 of last year.

And the good part:

This shows that print volumes continue to grow in spite of the economy.

It's a little noisy because it might just mean there are 25% more indigos on the street and/or the folks who have Indigos are doing well. But it is an intriguing statement. If we can get a little better data, it might suggest that pages are an enterprise staple, just like WalMart and P&G are consumer staples.

And this from it-director.com

Accounting for more than 40% of HP's operating profit, its printer division has long been considered one of its crown jewels . . .

It would be soon nice for my IRA, if I could just bet on the the crown jewel, without all the other stuff.