This was probably a long time in coming.  HP no longer wants to handle its camera business and is seeking a third party to make and distribute digital cameras under the HP brand.

It doesn’t really matter, you’d be surprised just how many components are the same from camera to camera, the main differences are the quality of the lenses.

I’m reminded of what Apple did with HP when HP was allowed to sell HP branded Apple iPods (yeah, I had trouble remembering that era of history too).

In any case, HP is looking for an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that would be allowed to design, source and sell digital cameras under the HP brand.  HP will continue making its digital cameras through the holiday season but wants to have a partnership in place by 2008.

HP says this move is so that it can concentrate on the home photo printing market, online photo services and accelerate growth of the company’s retail photo business.

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Related:

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Yet another new memory card format

Entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 2:17 pm under Digital Camera, HP, Point and Shoot.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.