Former eBay chief Meg Whitman has taken over the CEO of Hewlett-Packard with the goal of slowing down the decline initiated by two of her immediate predecessors. HP’s printer business is one of the several departments Whitman is trying to turn around.

HP is the biggest printer vendor by shipments, but it has been lagging on the technological front. The company has a share of less than 12 percent in the multifunction printer market, but that might change, thanks to a new line of products.

Hewlett-Packard is getting ready to unveil a new line of laser machines that combine standard printing functionality with scanning capabilities and software that makes eDiscovery easier for enterprises.

“For Ms. Whitman, there is a clear cause: ‘We haven’t had a new product lineup in seven years,’ she said. “It was very obvious that we had a product gap here.

“The new printers are indicative of how Ms. Whitman plans to fix HP. Since taking on the CEO job in September 2011, the 56-year-old has embarked on a strategy of controlling costs while still investing in new products.”

At HP Discover 2012 SiliconAngle John Furrier referred to HP as the gold standard for printers, which is still very much the case for the average consumer, if one is to go by the hard sales figures. But the vendor neglected innovation for a lengthy period, and its first new printer line-up in nearly a decade needs to live up to expectations.

Hewlett-Packard is trying to step things up in the data center as well. Earlier this month it unveiled a new ProLiant that runs on two Sandy Bridge Xeons and comes ships with 768GB of RAM under the hood.