Issue #0621/4 - Twenty-two years on, Hewlett-Packard’s tally for LaserJet printers shipped moves into 9 figures but the machines are being given away by comparison.
Well, it doesn’t quite have the melodic ring of ‘9 million bicycles in Beijing’ (Katie Melua) does it? But it is, nonetheless, an impressive number and one that makes one think (and feel quite small!).
Not all of these 100 million are still in the world – of course - but we are specifically talking about LaserJet printers not laser printers as a generic class of printer.
Hewlett-Packard’soriginal 8ppm LaserJet
printer—launched 1984
Hewlett-Packard has recently celebrated shipping the 100-millionth LaserJet printer from its facilities. The process began in 1984 as the desktop laser printer began its journey to becoming the printing technology of choice for the office environment and Hewlett-Packard began its journey as the leading supplier of laser printers when the very first LaserJet printer was launched, printing at 8ppm.
Consistently maintaining that number one position in the laser category (meaning page printers – i.e. including LED printers) Hewlett-Packard has at times enjoyed a market share of more than 80% in some market segments.
12ppm LaserJet 4+So successful was the laser printer in general, and Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printers specifically, that, only seven years after their introduction, the volumes being shipped pushed dot matrix printers (anyone remember having one of them in their workplace?) into second place and Hewlett-Packard took over the position as leading printer manufacturer from Epson. Epson’s strength had been in the Dot Matrix market and the company struggled to make its impact on the laser market.
In the early days, the page printer category was limited to single-function mono printers with print speeds ranging from 4ppm to 8ppm – it was a full decade before print speed rose to 12ppm with the Canon EX+ engine in the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4+ and Canon LBP-1260 Plus.
Nowadays, 22 years on, the picture is very different:
- mono single-function laser printers are generally a declining breed – but …
- print speeds start at 14ppm and run as high as 55ppm on office A4 laser printers
- purchase prices have fallen to only 2.5% of the original LaserJet price for a current entry-level mono laser printer
- shipments of laser printer-based devices have been accelerated by the growing popularity of multifunction, AiO and MFP machines
- laser printer shipment volumes have also been accelerated by the drive towards colour in the office and the desire to maximise communication effectiveness through the use of colour
- colour laser printers are now available for less than 6% of the cost of the original mono LaserJet
Colour LaserJet4730xs MFP
Hewlett-Packard plays in all of these areas and, while competition is stiffer in some areas than others, the company continues to lead the field overall.
Indeed, Hewlett-Packard indicates that, today, the $3,500 price tag of the LaserJet would equate to $6,869, which is more than enough to pay for a Colour LaserJet 4730xs MFP, offering 30ppm printing in mono and colour, together with duplex printing, networking, colour copying, faxing, 500-sheet stapler-stacker! A world apart!
Talking of acceleration, it was in December of 2000 that Hewlett-Packard celebrated shipping its 50-millionth laser printer so, in five-and-a-half years (December 2000 to June 2006), the company doubled its output of the previous 16½ years. In 1993, the company had celebrated its 10-millionth LaserJet – making a five times increase in shipped volume in the following seven years.
- 3yrs … First 10m
- 7yrs … Next 40m
- 6yrs … Next 50m
When one considers that some LaserJet IIs are still in operation, it is not hard to realise the huge potential for ongoing sales revenue that lies in these figures and why around 65% of Hewlett-Packard Imaging and Printing Group revenue is from printer supplies.
Hewlett-Packard 92285AEP toner cartridge for
the original
LaserJet printer
Laserjet II—Launched 1987There is also the fact that it is Hewlett-Packard that sets the levels for CPP in all the printer categories from high-end laser to low-end inkjet. Only Kyocera Mita bucks the trend although several others do maintain CPP levels that are a little lower than those from Hewlett-Packard in order to be competitive.
So, as we congratulate Hewlett-Packard on this achievement, we look forward to seeing what the future of LaserJet printing has in store for us.
~End~
