By now the fact that work has changed significantly in the wake of the pandemic, should be well known to all. As borders have opened up and lockdown restrictions eased in recent months, there is shifting expectation as to how we work, with the hybrid model being seen as the go-to solution for employees and employers alike.

There are sure to be outliers, there always are, but in general hybrid work is going to be the standard moving forward.

This was one of the key talking points during HP’s recent Dubai leg of the Amplify Executive Forum 2022. In the coming months and years, from a device design and creation perspective, HP will be making more products that enable hybrid work.

We have already seen a handful of devices being revealed to that end, with the Dragonfly Folio G3 very much the hero product for hybrid work at the moment.

We were on hand in debut, to not only see the devices, but also listen to the partner presentation from HP on how it will be considering and enabling hybrid work in its personal systems and printing products.

Looking at the former, HP’s president of Personal Systems, Alex Cho (pictured above), who spoke enthusiastically about the prospect of more Folio-like convertible devices entering the market in the coming year.

He also emphasised that devices at a more affordable price point, was a key consideration for HP and an area the company will be ramping up its productions plans.

“The North Star for HP is not to approach personal systems from a device perspective, but from an experience one,” he explained.

Other examples of the way the company is focusing on hybrid work is standards like HP Presence, which combines both a set of hardware and software to ensure speaker and microphone setups are better optimised for videoconferencing. This system is present in newer devices, like the Dragonfly Folio, and should feature in more down the line.

Adding to this focus on hybrid work is the recent acquisition of Poly, which specialises in workplace collaboration products and software.

Cho set some time aside to discuss sustainability too, which was a major theme during Amplify 2022, and said since the beginning of this year, every HP PC and notebook featured some form of recycled component, with the Dragonfly Folio featuring some of the most recycled material to date in an HP device.

Shifting to the printing business and it was the turn of Tuan Tran (pictured above), president of printing and imaging at HP, to take the stage. Like many of his colleagues, Tran was purposeful in acknowledging that, “the pandemic has changed our homes”.

These changes forced HP to reassess the features and designs of some of its printers, particularly the smaller form factor and consumer ones.An example of this was the launch the HP Envy Inspire All-In-One printer, which added modern photo features, an improved colour map and supported different sizes of colour printing.

Changes also occurred on the small business side too, as HP had to ensure that its portfolio of printers with the Tank system at its core were able to deliver up to two years’ worth of ink for printing.

To take the hassle out of managing an SMB’s printers, the company has also been pushing its Instant Ink platform, which monitors printer ink levels remotely and automatically delivers new ink to businesses before they need it, along with keeping tabs of all the company’s printers that may be on different page plans.

This is not an offering that has been made available in SA though, but it may arrive once more hybrid work is up and running locally.

Like Cho, Tran touched on sustainability and some initiatives that HP is working on in that regard, such as partnering with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to give back with every page that is printed. Added to this is the use of more recycled materials in printers, with up to 25 percent of components being recycled in some models.

As the world continues to adjust to life following a chaotic two years, it looks like HP is acutely aware of how people want to work and it’s aiming to sell devices that cater to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVIFOJJhyRc