H-P Strikes Up Its iPod

Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) unveiled a new lineup of consumer products Friday aimed at the back-to-school and holiday shopping season, including its own branded version of Apple's(AAPL) iPod digital music player.

Annual product launches from H-P have been increasingly oriented toward consumers in the past couple of years, in line with the company's ongoing campaign to expand its business beyond corporate buyers. H-P draws roughly 30% of its sales from consumers, by one investment bank's estimate.

The highest-profile gadget at the product launch, which is known as Big Bang 3, was the iPod. In January, H-P made the surprise announcement that it would offer the device under its own brand, noting its internal research showed that more than half of its customers downloaded music to their PCs. In a related move, earlier this year H-P began preinstalling its consumer PCs and notebooks with Apple's iTunes jukebox software.

H-P said Friday its branded iPods will be priced the same as Apple's, with the 20-gigabyte version of the devices retailing for $299 and the 40-gigabyte for $399.

But with its vast retail presence, H-P will greatly increase availability of the music players, which will be offered at big retailers like Circuit City(CC), CompUSA and Best Buy(BBY).

Besides the iPod, H-P talked up newly introduced digital cameras and photo printers, which it hopes will increase demand for its highly profitable printer supplies. An accompanying lineup of inks and specialty papers will allow consumers to print 4-inch-by-6-inch photos for as little as 29 cents, the company said.

Also, H-P rolled out a digital entertainment center that will let consumers manage music, movies and photos from a single device, new plasma and LCD flat-panel TVs, and a cinema digital projector.

"We are the leader in the home office and to be the leader in the living room too is very important to us," said VJ Joshi, head of H-P's printer business, on an investor conference call.

In recent Friday trading, the stock gained 8 cents or 0.4% to $18.27.

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