Two American friends together laid the foundation of IT giant HP. These friends were William Reddington Hewlett and David Packard. Know, how the journey of HP started which reached heights…
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Two boys met while studying in America. The meeting turned into a deep friendship and together they laid the foundation of IT giant HP. These friends were William Reddington Hewlett and David Packard. The name of the company of these two was based on their surname HP i.e. Hewlett Packard. Which became America’s multinational company. Its headquarter is in California. This company discovered many things in the IT world which made human life easier.
William Hewlett was born on May 20, 1913 in Michigan, USA. His father was a faculty at the University of Michigan. William did his early studies from California. During this, he complained of dyslexia, which is a type of learning disorder and the patient has difficulty in reading. As a result, it became difficult for William to read and write. This disease was troubling William, but not his intentions. In the matter of science and mathematics, his memory was commendable.
Surprised by making radios in high school
Born on September 7, 1912, in Colorado, USA, David Packard impressed parents and teachers with his intelligence from an early age. He surprised everyone by making a radio in high school. In 1930, David enrolled at Stanford University to pursue electrical engineering.It was here that he met William Hewlett. Both studied under Frederick Terman, known as the father of Silicon Valley.Both expressed their desire to start their business with Frederick and to find something new. Meanwhile, both the friends planned to start their startup.
tossed before naming the company
Interestingly, the toss was done before HP was named. A bet was placed that the surname of the one who wins in this toss would be written first. Hewlett won it. In this way the company was named Hewlett Packard. In the initial phase, the company started from a garage. The company was officially started in California on January 1, 1939 with an amount of 44 thousand rupees. The garage built behind David’s house was made the company’s office.
When the company made the first product
After months of hard work, the first product was made in the company. It was an audio oscillator that produced different types of audio. Its name was- HP200A. It used to release audio frequencies of high quality. To sell it, David and William started contacting universities and schools. For the first time he got 4 orders for it. After that he went on doing marketing and the number of orders kept on increasing.Along with this, the price of the product had increased to Rs 14,000 during that period.
Apart from this, the company prepared the bulb.His products were appreciated and the famous Walt Disney Studios placed an order for audio oscillators. For which he paid 47 thousand rupees. This was the biggest order for HP at that time. From the very first year the company started making strong profits.
Profits skyrocketed because of World War II?
In 1941 America entered World War II. The US Army ordered the audio oscillator from the company. Apart from this, the company had started manufacturing analyzers, vacuum tubes and voltmeters by then. The army needed them. In this way the profits of the company skyrocketed. In 1943, the company’s sales increased to 8.25 crores. After this profit, the company geared up to move forward in the field of innovation.
With increasing profits, the company shifted its office to the new building and started buying several software companies. The company started selling its products abroad and on 6 November 1957 HP became a private company. Started marketing organization in Geneva in the company. Along with this, Japan’s Sony and Yokogawa Electric have planned to produce high quality products. But due to the high cost of the product, there was no success.
Made the world’s first scientific calculator
In 1961, HP bought the Sanborn company and began manufacturing medical equipment. The credit goes to HP for making the world’s first scientific calculator. The company made atomic clocks, which also gave information about one millionth of a second. HP bought Apollo and Convex computers and produced the minicomputer in 1996.
Made the world’s first personal computer
In 1968, HP made the world’s first personal computer, which was named Hewlett-Packard 9100A. After this the company made more than one product and created history. In May 2022, Compaq and HP merged and the company was named HPQ ie Hewlett Packard & Compaq. Although this merger did not prove to be better in terms of business. The company also started giving some part of its profit to the employees. The goal that HP has set for innovation in products continues even today. This is the reason that after 8 decades, HP has remained a giant in the IT sector.
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