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

Issue #1107 - With the arrival of the ‘pad’ computer, particularly in Apple and Android guises, the need to be able to print from mobile devices has never been stronger. While individual office software applications running on smartphones and pad devices do not include a print capability, it is down to the printer manufacturers to enable printing for their own devices. Who has done it? How? And how good are they?

Issue #1105 – Don’t be duped into thinking that the FS-C5150 and FS-C5250 colour laser printers from Kyocera are ‘just another refresh on the previous models’ (FS-C5100 and FS-C5200), as the product naming might suggest! They are not. They are completely new machines, bringing new and innovative design features and functionality to the desktop that belie the rather ‘normal-looking’ hardware specification.

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.