Issue #0517/2 - With the clear intention of maintaining a competitive edge, both Dell and Lexmark have reduced prices on their ultra low-end colour laser printers to undercut Hewlett-Packard.
Both Dell and Lexmark have made reductions to colour laser printer pricing this month.
Dell Colour Laser
Printer 3000cn
With a clear intention of undercutting everything in sight, Dell in particular has cut the price of its Colour Laser Printer 3000cn by 20% to bring it well under the £200 mark. This price is 6% lower than the introductory price from Canon with its new Laser Shot LBP-5200. Despite the fact that the Dell machine is network-ready, whereas the Canon relies on an optional external print server to provide network connectivity, Dell has felt the need to maintain the position as the lowest priced offering regardless of specification advantages.
Dell Colour Laser
Printer 3000cn
Also reduced in price is the Colour Laser Printer 3100cn, by 11%, now priced lower than the new Colour LaserJet 2600n from Hewlett-Packard.
Lexmark C510
Similarly, Lexmark has reduced the price of its C510 by 19% to ensure that its price is lower than any Hewlett-Packard model – specifically the Colour LaserJet 2600n.
Hewlett-Packard’s own 4-pass printer, CLJ 2550L is being left behind as these prices come down – but the engine has now been in use for two years and will probably be due for replacement in the relatively near future, meaning that we may see preparatory price reductions in due course.
Canon Laser
Shot LBP-5200
More strikingly left behind is the Phaser 6100 from Xerox, which retains the price set in August of last year, following a price reduction of 21%.
These adjustments from Dell and Lexmark support the theory that the CLJ 2600n is positioned to fall between the two categories. Competitors in the 4-pass category are fighting to retain an advantage over the new machine while those in the single-pass category are unable, at this point in time, to match Hewlett-Packard’s aggressive pricing.
Hewlett-Packard
Colour LaserJet 2600n
However, it should be stressed again that the specification (print speed) of the CLJ 2600n does fall considerably short of the single-pass competition, meaning that there is no urgency for competitors to match the price.
Supplies pricing from Dell remain unchanged – not surprising since the CPP’s on offer from Dell are already the lowest in the market by a considerable margin (up to 37% mono, up 29% colour and 32% long-term).
~End~
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 20th, 2005 at 12:01 am and is filed under Strategy, Pricing, Issues.
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