Hewlett Packard Company History

The California-based company Hewlett Packard is best known for its manufacture and sale of personal computers and computer accessories. With a distribution of more than 48 million computers annually and 1 million printers weekly, this Fortune 500 company ranked No. 9 in 2009. But this wasn't always the case. Hewlett Packard started many years before the Internet and personal computers became household items. At the time, this risky venture started by two guys working out of garage had only one customer, Walt Disney, and then the rest is history.

1930s

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard both studied electrical engineering at Stanford University. The two met on a camping trip during college and remained friends after graduation. When Packard and his wife bought a house in Palo Alto, California in 1938, Hewlett and Packard began working out of the shed in the backyard. The two men were developing the company's first product, a resistance-capacitance audio oscillator. This piece of equipment is an electronic instrument used to test sound. The first person who bought it was Walt Disney, who ordered eight to test a new sound system for the movie Fantasia. By the end of the 1930s, Hewlett and Packard were the company's only employees and made $5,369. They decided on the company name by a coin toss.

1940s

Hewlett Packard moves out of a backyard shed and rents office space for their fledgling company. When World War II strikes, Hewlett leaves the company for seven years to serve in the U.S. Army while Packard stays behind to run the company. Packard spends this time developing a new-style of corporate management that includes open cubicles, no doors on manager offices and a personal interaction between all levels of employees. By the time Hewlett returns to the company, it is manufacturing 39 products, employing 111 employees and making more than $800,000 per year. By the end of the decade, Hewlett Packard grosses $2.2 million.

1960s

After becoming a publicly-traded company in 1957, Hewlett Packard continued its growth in the U.S. and Europe. The company makes the Fortune 500 list for the first time in 1962 and enters the Asian market in 1963, working with Japan. By the company's 25th anniversary, Hewlett Packard is making time pieces recognized by the U.S. Naval Observatory, microwave instruments, scientific field equipment and the first computer in 1966. Hewlett Packard's first computer was unique in that it didn't have to be stationary as was used aboard a research vessel. It had a 4K memory and cost upwards of $50,000.

1970s

Students everywhere had no idea that their math lessons and SAT tests would forever be changed when Hewlett Packard introduced the first scientific calculator in 1971. Small enough the fit in a pocket, this product was widely recognized by engineers and made the old method of using a sliding ruler obsolete. By 1977, Hewlett Packard created a wristwatch that could not only tell time, but also act as a calculator and personal calendar. The decade ends as Hewlett and Packard both retire from the company that is now making $2.4 billion annually.

1980s

Enter the age of computers and Hewlett Packard becomes a major player in developing desktop computers and introduces the first laser jet ink printers. The Hewlett Packard branch in England developed an internal mailing system in which employees could send messages to one another through the office computers. No one knew it then, but this popular method would later be called e-mail. By 1984, the ink jet printer had become more efficient and smaller, gracing numerous offices around the world. Hewlett Packard's Barney Oliver wins the National Medal of Science in 1986 and the company concludes the decade by celebrating its 50th anniversary, employing 95,000 people and grossing $11.9 billion.

Present Day

After the deaths Packard in the 1990s and Hewlett in the early-2000s, the company introduces the HP LaserJet5Si printer, which eliminates the need for photocopying, and is also an all-in-one printer with copy and scan functions. By 1998, Hewlett Packard develops a Jordana Palmtop PC that runs on a Windows operating system. In 2002, Hewlett Packard merged with Compaq, becoming the global leader in computer products and technology. In 2004, Hewlett Packard markets to a new sector of consumers, selling movies, music, television and photography products. The company grossed more than $104 billion is 2007.