TCPglobal - news, views and issues on total cost of printing

Issue #0840/1 – With consumerism being one of the most powerful forces on the earth, (RED) is where “virtue meets desire”. It is an “ingenious idea that unites our incredible collective power as consumers with our innate urge to help others”. Dell has been a member of the (RED) brigade since January 2008, offering a special (RED) AiO printer in addition to a range of specially designed (RED) laptops and a (RED) All-in-One desktop PC.

Issue #0840/2 – Kyocera again struggles to make Total Cost of Printing on its colour laser printers as ground-breaking as its mono printers but, the FS-C5100 is still drastically less expensive to run than Lexmark’s new C544dn. Printers that Kyocera loses out to are: Canon LBP-5360; Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet CP3505dn; and Samsung CLP-610ND.

Issue #0840/3 – With a median purchase price in Germany of only €335, the new Lexmark E360dn mono laser printer is sure to attract buyers who are looking for low-cost printing. But, unless those buyers are prepared with a comparison of Total Cost of Printing before making their purchase decision, they will fall into the disastrous trap of buying cheap and getting horrendously expensive. We compare the costs of the E360dn with competitors from Canon, Dell, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, Samsung and Xerox.

Issue #0840/4 – Cheap to buy, expensive to run – this has become a familiar story with Lexmark printers and MFPs. Lexmark’s new X544dn is an exception to a degree, in that Return Program cartridges pull costs down enough for it to be considered as an alternative to competitors from Brother, Hewlett-Packard, Oki and Xerox. Using regular cartridges though, we are left in no doubt about the high level of costs involved in running the X544dn.

Issue #0839/1 - Total Cost of Printing varies enormously from printer to printer, largely depending on the pricing strategy of the manufacturer and the type and technology of the device in question – such is the primary message of TCPglobal, together with the need for buyers to make an educated choice with TCP as a major component. In this article we show how that, in itself, is not enough for those users who are particularly price or cost-sensitive and who need to achieve maximum return from their investment, particularly in the economic climate we are in right now, showing just how much is to be gained or lost through shopping around.