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

Issue #0820/1 – While undertaking research for an article on Lexmark’s recent launch of its new range of Home/Student inkjet devices, we were shocked at how difficult it is to find them in stores (article now to follow next week). So we decided that an impromptu survey was called for. In this article we analyse the share of ‘shelf space’ owned by each of Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark, together with the market conditions, strategies and implications. We see just how many Lexmark inkjet products are available in-store right now. It’s not a pretty sight – for Lexmark!

Issue #0818/1 - Since last week’s TCPglobal article - "Mass merchandisers mislead customers over cartridge pricing", it has been announced that the UK now has a new law to protect consumers from the type of misleading claims highlighted in the article. This new suite of regulations is designed to place the UK in compliance with the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC) under which consumers receive the same degree of protection regardless of which EU member state they purchase goods in but could specifically affect printer manufacturers who use comparative advertising as part of their marketing strategy.

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 #0816/1 – New printing technologies don’t come along too often, so when Océ announced a new hybrid toner/ink technology for use in its large format printers, “CrystalPoint” using proprietary “TonerPearls”, we ask the question, “does this technology have a place in the office market”? In this article, we examine the technology and explore that potential.

Issue #0815/1 – With two new A3 colour MFPs (Hewlett-Packard CM6040F and Lexmark X945e) now available in the printer channel, there is more choice for organisations both in regard to which machine to adopt and also how to acquire the device. The most direct competitors from the copier channel are Canon’s iRC4580i, Konica Minolta’s bizhub C451, Kyocera’s KM-C4035E, Ricoh’s MPC4500, Sharp’s 4500N and Xerox’s WorkCentre 7655.