In a surprise announcement, Hewlett-Packard has announced it will no longer make Mac scanners. While this is big boost to companies like Umax who provide a full line of Mac scanner products, the loss of HP comes as a confusing blow to the resurgent Mac market. The following is the full statement from the HP web site:
ISSUE: HP position on Macintosh support for new Macintosh technologies.
SOLUTION: Hewlett-Packard's Scanner Division has moved out of the Macintosh environment. This decision has been made based solely on market needs and revenue. The current Macintosh market is relatively small compared to the Microsoft (R) Windows and NT markets. It is because of this relatively small size that HP has chosen not to offer new scanners for this market.
Support for existing Macintosh customers
HP's Scanner Division will continue to support its existing Macintosh customers on the current Macintosh technology stream both for hardware and O/S. HP will test its existing scanner software to ensure that it is supported with this legacy Mac technology. The newer Macintosh products and technologies require developing new scanner software components. HP will not be developing new components for this new Macintosh environment.
New Macintosh technologies
Apple has recently introduced a new computer using the G3 processor and an Adaptec SCSI card. This computer is known as the Blue G3. The Adaptec card has a new bus numbering scheme that is not compatible with the HP DeskScan. Apple is also planning to introduce a new OS version; Mac OS 10. Both of these new technologies are examples of technologies that will not be supported by HP ScanJet scanners. The HP Scanner division will continue to support the Mac legacy of systems prior to Blue G3 with Mac OS 8.x.
Positioning
It is important to understand that HP as a company will continue their relationship with Apple and provide solutions in selected areas.
We are currently trying to find out from HP whether any USB scanner products would be shipped in the future. As of print time, we have yet to hear back from the company's public relations department.
The Mac Observer Spin: This is indeed perplexing. Apple's market share is growing in leaps and bounds, yet HP pulls back from scanning products. Their reasoning is somewhat economically sound on the surface in that their return on investment in Mac technologies is a fraction of what it is for the Windows market. As nasty as this fact is, it is still the truth.
However, with Apple's expanding market share and obvious return to health, HP is giving up on a market that will be much larger in the future. This is especially the case with FireWire and USB taken into consideration. With both technologies, HP has only to develop Mac drivers, and not mess with SCSI (which is not very popular on the PC side, or other Apple "non-standard" connectivity standards. What gives? This is just not a smart move.
HP did make obvious efforts to show that they will continue to support their existing Mac customers, and they are to be commended in this regard. Between HP and Intuit however...
Hewlett-Packard
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