About HP

Tier one PC computer manufacturer for Laptops, Desktops and Storage.

 

Stanford University classmates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP in 1939. The company's first product, built in a Palo Alto garage, was an audio oscillator — an electronic test instrument used by sound engineers. One of HP's first customers was Walt Disney Studios, which purchased eight oscillators to develop and test an innovative sound system for the movie Fantasia.

 

By 1949 HP had a turnover of $2.2M USD and employed 166 staff. By 1959, HP becomes a global company. As a result of Bill's scouting trip, the company establishes a European marketing organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and a manufacturing plant in Boeblingen, Germany. From this base, HP steadily expands its European operations and increases i's revenue to $48M USD with 2,378 staff now employed.

 

For the first time, HP makes Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 U.S. companies. It enters the list at number 460 and continues to climb in the annual ranking throughout the coming decades.

Revenue: $110 million. Employees: 6,260.

 

By 1972, HP had made another advance in personal computing with the HP-35, the world's first scientific handheld calculator. Small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, the powerful HP-35 makes the engineer's slide rule obsolete. In 2000, Forbes ASAP names it one of 20 "all time products" that have changed the world.

HP expands into business computing with its first general-purpose computer, the HP 3000, which introduces the era of distributed data processing. The HP 3000 serves high-technology engineering and research needs at the same time it handles day-to-day administrative data processing operations.

HP becomes the first U.S. electronics firm to be invited to China for trade discussions.

Revenue: $479 million. Employees: 20,941.

By 1983, HP allows users to activate features on their PCs simply by touching the screen when it introduces its first touchscreen personal computer, the HP-150.

Revenue: $4.7 billion. HP employees: 72,000.

 

In Apri 2008l, HP introduces a full-function, mini-notebook: the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. Designed for the education market, it also offers mobile professionals a sleek, lightweight device that provides access to information and the ability to collaborate with others.

Revenue: $ 118.4 billion. HP employees: 321,000