HP now makes an affordable Deskjet printer your grandma will love

Unlike Millennials, who are known for chasing the newest and most feature-rich consumer electronics, empty-nesters and seniors want different things from their tech.

With the American population aged 65 and older expected to double, there’s little doubt that Baby Boomers will be heading into their golden years with their smartphones in hand. But the ways in which this group uses their tech will change significantly as they get older.

It’s one of the reasons why HP designed a new DeskJet printer with wireless connectivity—but scraps a lot of other bells and whistles—to meet their needs for wireless printing from a smartphone or tablet, at an affordable price.

Today the company rolled out the DeskJet 2600 series, the company’s lowest-priced All-in-One printer with wireless and mobile connectivity. It can print, copy and scan and retails for about $50.

“The customer we are targeting doesn’t need 100-sheet inputs trays or really fast speeds, because they don’t do a ton of printing,” said Cari Dorsh, director, home consumer product management at HP. “They need convenience, ease-of-use and reliability in a low-cost device.”

No-compromise connectivity

With fewer cables, wireless printing offers flexibility in where a printer is placed and enables printing from mobile devices and PCs alike. But for consumers who don’t have broadband at home, HP embedded Wi-Fi Direct in the DeskJet 2600 ensures that users—or anyone who walks into the house—can still print from their smartphones or other mobile computing devices.

“We know that the whole market is moving toward wireless and customers want mobile,” Dorsh said. “Wi-Fi Direct enables multiple users to connect their smartphone or tablet directly to the all-in-one and easily print without accessing a network.”

Rethinking design

HP’s engineers were able to keep costs down by removing higher-end features, simplifying the device and making it easy to use out of the box.

There aren’t a lot of features to get confused about, Dorsh said, making it an ideal printer for empty nesters or in multi-generational households where grandparents reside with their school-age grandkids.

“We did a couple of things differently for this customer segment to better meet their needs,” she said. “For this customer, having wireless connectivity and mobile printing is more important than higher-end printer features.”

Those design tweaks included enlarging the control buttons and reducing the feature set on the control panel to make the printer’s capabilities easy to understand.

For people on a limited budget, HP offers a low-cost, subscription-based Instant Ink services that ensures ink is delivered automatically when supplies are running low, for a monthly fee that is as little as $2.99 per month.

Wireless setup was streamlined, too. All of it can be done via the HP All-in-One Remote smartphone app that walks through the process for a smoother user experience.

“We made the setup much easier for people who aren’t necessarily tech-savvy,” Dorsh said. “They get these forward-looking features and something everyone in the house can connect to without a lot of added cost or complexity.”

More specs for the HP DeskJet 2655 AiO can be found here. Global availability will roll out later this year.

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