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

Issue #0818/2 - Sadly, the claims of most manufacturers need to be taken with a large pinch of salt when the words “affordable”, “lowest”, “smallest”, “fastest”, etc. are used in their marketing literature. In the case of the newly announced C3600 colour laser printer from Oki, the use of some of these terms is unfounded. Even “competitively-priced” can be misleading. Comparing with 10 competitors, Oki does not fair well overall where it really matters.

Issue #0817/1 – Special offers come and go but, as long as Hewlett-Packard does not change its Business Inkjet (Officejet Pro) strategy, there will be no less expensive way to print colour office documents. Current special offers place the Officejet L7480 at less than half price, an opportunity to save up to 42% on office colour printing when compared to a standard inkjet AiO or 60% compared to the least expensive colour laser AiO.

Issue #0817/2 – In-store merchandising materials can be very misleading. TCPglobal has uncovered a couple of outrageous examples of apparently deliberate attempts to make consumers believe that the in-store offer is good value and that they are getting a good deal. One of the stores involved is Asda, a Wal-Mart company.

Issue #0813/1 - Lexmark is losing sales and income every quarter with revenue seen to have fallen steadily over the last four years. This month sees the release of the latest financials from the company (Q1, 2008) that reveal a staggering loss of 42% of its inkjet unit sales since the same quarter of last year and an overall decline in revenue of 7% to $1.18bn.

Issue #0813/3 - Although not a scientific survey or test programme, the sale of printers on eBay is a pretty clear indication of the relative desirability of printers from different manufacturers. CharisCo Printer Labs put three inkjet All-in-Ones on eBay, with a fascinating outcome! This offers some insight into why Lexmark’s consumer division is performing so badly, with such a heavy decline in inkjet unit sales.