Issue #0516/1 - Small offices and businesses will doubtless greet new low-cost multifunction devices from Hewlett-Packard and Oki with much enthusiasm.
Following the recent launch of the Xerox WorkCentre C2424, the world’s first colour MFP designed for, and accessible to the small office ("First entry level, sub-£2,000/€3,000/$3,000 colour MFP"), and the Oki C5510 MFP referred to last week, Hewlett-Packard has now launched a highly competitive colour All-in-One device that opens up this functionality to even the smallest of companies.
This new breed of colour device is based on the ultra low-end print engine from each manufacturer and the devices reach the market at ultra low-end prices!
Hewlett-PackardColour LaserJet 2820AiO
In Hewlett-Packard’s case, the 4ppm/19ppm 4-pass Colour LaserJet 2820AiO is priced at just £569 / €815 / $799 with the fax inclusive model (2840AiO) costing just £70 / €91 / $200 more – high premium in the US!
In Oki’s case, the 12ppm/20ppm single-pass C5510 MFP is priced at €1,049 in Germany, while the 16ppm/24ppm C5540 MFP is priced at €1,649. In the UK, only the C5510 is available, at a price of £869.
Although the Oki device was not formally launched in the UK as of 13th May, it is available in Germany and in the US – details can be found on the web sites for both countries and are now also available on the Oki UK web site. Launch in the UK is set for Monday 16th May and actual pricing is included here.
Considering the German price is €1,049, which translates to about £750, the UK price seems rather on the high side. Furthermore, relative pricing of other products in Germany would have suggested pricing in the UK on the C5510 could have been closer to £650.
Clearly, had it been priced at £649, or even £749, the Oki C5510 MFP would have represented red-hot value, competing aggressively with the Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet 2820AiO – as does the C3100 printer against the Colour LaserJet 2550L (£399 against £304). At £869 however, although still an enormously high value product – at 12ppm colour and 20ppm mono – it may struggle to compete with the Colour LaserJet 2820AiO, which produces 19ppm in mono even though its 4-pass engine is restricted to 4ppm.
Bearing in mind that the 24ppm single-pass Xerox WorkCentre C2424 produces 12ppm in mono and colour at normal print quality (the machine only delivers 24ppm in draft mode!), and is priced at £1,999 / €2,999 / $2,999, it is fair to say that the products from Hewlett-Packard and Oki should prove to be far more attractive to a far wider range of smaller businesses than the Xerox product will be. To say that they blow the C2424 out of the water may be an exaggeration – but the temptation is strong!
Oki C5510n MFPOn the subject of print speed, one very interesting comment from the European product management team at Hewlett-Packard indicated that customer research in the small general office environment shows that users are most interested in the mono print speed of a device. This suggests that a 4-pass engine is adequate for users in the small office where colour requirements are occasional.
Clearly, one would expect Hewlett-Packard to make such a comment in these circumstances. Doubtless Oki and Xerox would both disagree! However, the logic is good – that where print is predominantly mono, with colour requirements few and far between, a very low cost 4-pass machine will be more attractive than a more costly single-pass machine.
Oki’s low-end colour multifunction device, C5510 MFP, is a 12ppm colour and 20ppm mono single-pass machine. So, again, we see faster black than mono printing even though this is a single-pass device rather than the 4-pass technology of Hewlett-Packard’s colour AiO.
In introducing a new category of ‘Ultra Low-End Colour AiO/MFPs’, these two manufacturers between them have effectively almost removed any need for small workgroup environments, with majority mono printing needs, to own more than one machine. Lexmark’s prediction that all devices will be colour by 2007 is a little bit closer (but still unlikely)!
As indicated, the new machines leverage ultra low-end colour engines – in Hewlett-Packard’s case, the Colour LaserJet 2550 and in Oki’s case, the C3100. Considering that Xerox utilised the Phaser 8400 solid ink engine, which starts at £619 / €899 / $799, perhaps it should have been possible for Xerox to introduce a multifunction device at a cost lower than the C2424. Alternatively, the ultra low-end Fuji Xerox engines being used by Dell in the C3000n/C3100n printers, or even the C5100n, might have provided a lower cost platform for this new product category.
It is true that Xerox could not leverage existing inkjet AiO products in its new product in the way that Hewlett-Packard has been able to leverage huge experience in both low cost inkjet and laser AiOs. But, the same goes for Oki. Both Oki and Xerox have a long history in fax products but Xerox has a history of providing high-end solutions and seems to be struggling to adjust its thinking for the cost-conscious small office in the way that Hewlett-Packard has now succeeded in doing.
For Hewlett-Packard, leveraging scan head with Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) as a standard feature from existing devices has made the development of the new device very easy. All the hardware, utilities and software was pre-existing from current ranges of inkjet and mono laser AiO machines.
In fact, the only real issue for Hewlett-Packard in the development of this product has been the physical integration of the scan head with the printer body – and excellently it has been done! There is no sense that this is a cobbled-together make-do product. The design is clean, neat, tidy and attractive.
One of the most impressive characteristics of the Colour LaserJet 2820AiO is that consumables, unlike those for the Xerox C2424, have not been keyed to create an artificial monopoly on the device. The same consumables fit both LaserJet 2550 and the new All-in-One device.
Whereas Xerox has increased the nominal Cost Per Page for the multifunction device above the level that is obtained from the same engine used as the Phaser 8400, Hewlett-Packard has taken the LaserJet 2550 engine as the profit centre, offering users the same nominal CPP for both printer and AiO.
Oki consumables are part shared and part exclusive. Part numbers indicate that the C5510 MFP shares transfer belt and fuser with all of the low-end machines – C3100, C5200 and C5400. However, pricing is different between the existing printer models and the new MFP. Conversely, the imaging drums have different part numbers but the same prices as those for the printer!
Also, although the C5510 MFP uses the C3100 engine, which only accepts standard capacity cartridges and not the high capacity units accepted by the 16/24ppm models, it does accept the high capacity toner cartridges.
Rather than simply use the same cartridges though, it does look as though Oki has created a new series of part numbers for the MFP device, hence creating a specific cost centre with mini monopoly. What this means is that Oki will be able to charge higher prices for the MFP toners than for the printer toners – like Xerox.
In point of fact, Oki has adjusted the balance of pricing so that mono printing is cheaper on the MFP than on the printers, while colour is more expensive. Transfer belt and fuser are also less expensive on the MFP than on the printers.
| UK | Purchase | Nominal CPP |
Mixed mono/colour CPP over 3 years |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet 2820 AiO |
£569 |
Mono Colour |
1.50 pence 7.45 pence |
3.55 pence |
| Oki C5510 MFP | £869 |
Mono Colour |
1.22 pence 7.52 pence |
3.54 pence |
|
Xerox WorkCentre C2424 (solid ink) |
£1,999 |
Mono Colour |
1.06 pence 7.44 pence |
4.09 pence |
Note that for this level of machine, the mixed mono/colour CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 5000 pages per month using maximum capacity toners and takes into account any standard, or starter, toner cartridges shipped with the printer and includes the purchase price.
On balance, all this means that the Oki C5510 is strategically priced to be just 0.01 penny cheaper to run over a three-year period than the Colour LaserJet 2820 but mono printing is 19% cheaper! Both of these are somewhat less expensive (13%) to run that the Xerox C2424 even thought the Xerox has the lowest nominal mono CPP of 1.06 pence.
Hewlett-Packard ColourLaserJet 2820AiO with
additional paper tray
As Oki joins both Hewlett-Packard and Xerox in fitting networking as standard in its new colour MFP, a clear precedent has now been set by these three manufactures, which will need to be followed by any manufacturer joining the product category if they wish to be competitive. One would hope that this precedent will also extend itself further into the printer categories.
Xerox WorkCentre C2424with additional paper
tray and cabinet
In terms of durability, the CLJ2820AiO has a monthly duty cycle of 30,000 pages, while the C2424 is rated at 85,000 pages per month.
Oki C5510 MFPwith additional cabinet
