A game changer from HP: MarketSplash catalyzes the Indigo printernet.

The new thing is that HP will set standards to be part of the Market Splash print providers network. see snippet

That gets to a standards based PSP/OPM (original product manufacturers) network. Every Indigo owner gets to compete to be part of the network. Competing on the basis of clear standards with a valuable prize is much better than "educating" the customer. It's also what works for "educating" that bottom of the pyramid high school kid.


I would now supply a path for OPMs to also be standards based VARs. In the jargon, it's called being a Market Solutions Provider.
On the ground it could mean:
1. reselling Salesforce.com and Google Apps to micro and small business
and/or . . .
2. linking good marketing/design studios to micro-small business
and/or . . .
3. linking good independents to sell MPS or MFP as appropriate
and/or . . .
4. linking to newspapers to sell sMB ads for news-on-papers or news-on-screens
and/or . . .
5. whatever else their customers might want to buy

The sooner the print nodes become VARs for their communities of interest, the sooner the whole thing shifts into organic growth. If you've ever seen a garden explode in the spring, you know how fast plants grow.

Very nice. If they would only spin off the Print piece, I would be happy to place a bet, while the Top Management and the Board figure out how pay for the $10 billion purchase of EDS and struggle to maintain margins from laptops, netbooks and computer services.

fromPrint CEO -
HP Announces Changes to MarketSplash:
"As of today advertising for MarketSplash.com on the open market will cease. Over the next 4 months HP is going to phase out the current public site. In September the MarketSplash.com site will relaunched with tools to connect content creators with print providers.

A new referral option will provide a lookup functionality to locate HP Indigo customers. HP will set qualification criteria to become part of the the MarketSplash print service provider network. HP plans to expand the number of print-to-mail vendors. HP will share more details on these changes in the next month."

Meanwhile, I think I heard on Bloomberg that HP has a "strong" relationship with Canon. Is there a way that Canon can leverage that relationship to get back at Ricoh for the Ikon hit?

The next battle is the Ricoh and Fuji/Fuji Xerox/Fuji response. The clash of the titans continues. Oce keeps on keeping on. Kodak? KM? All the while, my IRA is feeling much better.

Go Print! Go Printernet!