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

Issue #1104 – When two new products are placed under offers that reduce their price by as much as 66%, one has to sit up and take notice. Lexmark’s brand new Genesis S815 inkjet AiO and Xerox’s re-branded ColorQube 8570 (formerly Phaser) solid ink desktop printer are both being offered in the UK with £200 cash back! Note: Lexmark is offering cash back of up to £2,000 on some models.

Issue #1102 – With new A3 inkjet All-in-One models now being launched by Brother, the battle for the A3 inkjet business AiO sector is now fully on. Brother has drawn a new line in the sand with a range of devices that claim doubled print speed from the previous generation and all of which deliver duplex printing (even in A3 format), A3 scan platen and both wired and wireless connectivity as standard features.

Issue #1101 – Hardware price reductions (median price in Euros) of up to 61% have resulted in one Brother A3 MFC All-in-One (MFC-6890CDW) moving from 78% more expensive to buy than the Hewlett-Packard Officejet 7500A to being 32% LESS expensive. The result is an amazing, but brief, window of opportunity for low volume users.

Issue #1013 – As Lexmark claims to have outperformed the market over the course of 2009 and 2010, we see some of the most significant giveaways ever seen and a market position that is, nonetheless, on the edge and inferior to other major manufacturers.

Issue #1007/1 – Reports are emerging of an academic study, involving both Microsoft and the Institute of Directors in the UK, suggesting that remote working will/should expand dramatically and that companies should reduce their office space in favour of either home working or renting space for employees in shared bureau facilities – or both. This would have major implications on the way IT is delivered and also on the profile of the printer and MFP market. This article considers some of the conditions, benefits and downsides relating to the demise of the office as we know it, together with consequences for printer and MFP manufacturers.