????今年1月，伊斯曼柯達公司（Eastman Kodak）申請破產時，沒人感到意外。這家已有131年歷史的“百年老店”曾在20世紀70年代控制了美國90%的膠片市場。但隨著數碼相機的崛起，它迅速地被取而代之，退出了歷史舞臺。柯達帝國的分崩離析，前后經歷了數十年的時間。

????現在，一場性質類似、曠日持久的衰退正在向打印機行業襲來。長期占據市場霸主地位，市場份額超過40%的巨頭惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard），可能也正在慢慢迎來它自己的“柯達時刻”。

????長期以來，打印機一直是惠普的搖錢樹。但是今非昔比，隨著人們開始在云端分享照片，在平板電腦和智能手機上瀏覽照片，這些機器正迅速失去青睞。衰退的勢頭已經日益明顯。2008財年以來，惠普打印機和影像部門的收入已經下降了12%。打印機部門的收入在集團總收入中所占比例不斷縮小，去年僅占20%，而個人電腦部門和IT服務則分別占到31%和28%，而在過去，打印機帶來的利潤要豐厚得多。

????如今的利潤空間已經大不如前。2011財年，打印機部門的營業毛利是收入的15%，與個人電腦部門6%的水平相比仍然高出了一大截。但是，僅僅兩年前，這個比例還能達到18%。

????如果這種情況還不算太糟糕的話，現實是，惠普打印機業務的業績似乎正在加速下滑。公司稱，最近一個季度，打印機收入與去年同期相比下滑了7%。營業毛利則下降到了12%。為什么會突然出現這種頹勢？這是因為在圣誕季里，買打印機的人明顯減少了，導致個人打印機收入與去年同期相比下降了15%。

????打印機部門曾被惠普新任首席執行官梅格?惠特曼稱為“惠普的命根子”。為了挽回目前的頹勢，她將打印機部門并入了個人電腦部門。而上一財季，后者的收入也下降了15%。這一招能解決一個問題：通過整合打印機部門與利潤率更低的個人電腦部門就能掩蓋前者不斷下滑的利潤率。從更實際的角度說，這么做還能讓惠普在與零部件供應商砍價時獲得更大的籌碼。

????數年前，在卡莉?費奧莉娜掌舵時，惠普就曾采取過類似舉措。但她的繼任者馬克?赫德卻又把這兩個部門給分拆了。現在，惠特曼的目的不光是合并兩個部門而已，她還想努力實現更大作為。不過，投資者則希望看到惠普能采取更大膽的舉措。

????When Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy in January, no one was surprised. The 131-year-old company once controlled 90% of the U.S. film market in the 1970s, only to be displaced by the rise of digital cameras. It took decades for Kodak to fall.

????Now a similar kind of long, slow decline may be afflicting printer industry. And Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), long the market's giant with a market share above 40%, may be approaching its own Kodak moment.

????Printers have long been a cash cow for HP, but they are losing popularity as people share pictures in the cloud, looking at them on tablets and smartphones. The decline has been increasingly evident. HP's printer and imaging division has seen its revenue decline by 12% since its 2008 fiscal year. The group comprises a smaller portion of revenue – 20% last year, compared with 31% for PCs and 28% for IT services – but it's historically had fatter profit margins.

????But even those profit margins aren't what they used to be. The printing division's operating margin was 15% of its revenue in fiscal 2011, still much better than the PC division's 6% margin. But it's down from the 18% operating margin that printers saw only two years ago.

????And if that's not bad enough, the decline in HP's printer business seems to be accelerating. In its most recent quarter, the company said printer revenue declined 7% from the same quarter a year earlier. Operating margin for the division dropped to 12%. Why the sudden decline? During the holiday season, fewer shoppers bought printers – consumer printer revenue slid 15% on year.

????HP's new CEO Meg Whitman, who calls the printing division "the lifeblood of HP," responded to the decline by folding it into the PC division, which saw a 15% drop in revenue last quarter. That will solve one problem: concealing the extent of the decline in HP's printer margins by blending it with lower-margin PCs. More practically, it could give HP greater leverage in negotiating prices with component suppliers.

????HP made a similar move under Carly Fiorina years ago, but her successor Mark Hurd split up the two divisions again. Whitman is trying to do more than simply rearrange deck chairs, but investors want bolder action.