I am a technologist so I like to connect long term financial success with technology shifts. When I reflect on the success of the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) over the past 22 years, I can connect it to one major technology shift: the desktop PC. The inkjet and laserjet printers had a market because of the explosion of applications developed for the PC platform. It started with desktop publishing and spreadsheet, and then came digital photos and other graphic intensive applications. Content was being created on the PC, it needed a digital output. We provided low cost high quality color print with a steady improvement in quality and speed that matched the increasing complexity and quality of digital content. Like the PC, it was affordable and to date IPG has shipped more than 400 million printers across the world.

This is the wave we rode and it created an entire digital print industry.

Today 48% of printed content come from the Web. Content is created, stored and distributed on the Web. The new application platform is the Internet. This is the new wave we are riding. It is not “if” or “when”. It’s now and it’s happening fast!

What’s the meaning of print on the web?

Remarkably, the explosion of content on the web is in a large part due to you, me and the billion plus internet users. We are the content creators. Now that we have all this digital content, we not only like to look at it, read it, share it, but we increasingly like to make “things” out of it. We may want to convert the pile of photos from this vacation into a nicely bound book, or get a few unique T-shirts for this birthday party. Why shouldn’t the stamp on the letter have your picture? What about the cool buttons you could give. Could you put a unique skin on your car?

That is the way I see it: “print” on the web is about making products from digital content. Cool products. It is the connection between the virtual and the physical world. Digital production makes the ultimate long tail (our creation) practical and economical. The same digital infrastructure that allows Amazon to sell you a book can allow you to produce your own personal book too.

If you have never tried, have a look at the products that can be created on HP’s Snapfish photo service where 40 million users create products, on line, from simple prints to Shrek the Third themed products where user generated content is mixed with content from DreamWorks Animation. These products are manufactured by a network of print service providers and shipped to you, or you can pick them up at a retailer of choice.

You might also want to sell the content or products you create. Cafepress is a great example of a user driven trading community. This too is the meaning of print on the web..

The web coupled with digital production can also bring to Small Business design and marketing capabilities that were only accessible to large enterprises not long ago. Logoworks is HP’s service for small and medium business. It brings together business users and a network of professional designers to create the marketing identity of those businesses and the associated products, from brochures to web sites.

Content takes many forms, increasingly, its video. Earlier this year IPG launched a new video service with Wal-Mart that brings movies to consumers.

Early success with Snapfish, Logoworks, and Video Download services taught us that we can build compelling internet interfaces and we need to build more. But could we enable the larger web? How can we bring print and product creation to the 100 million web sites on the World Wide Web?

That’s a story for my next blog!