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

Issue #0829/1 – While special offers can put mono laser MFP functionality in the hands of small business or home users for less than £50 including tax in the UK (see "Laser multifunction for less than £50 – including tax!"), the Total Cost of Printing using that machine in no way reflects the value of the low cost of accessibility to the technology. In this article we expand the product group to include the next strata of mono laser MFPs as we consider what implications there are in buying a cheap machine against buying the lowest Total Cost of Printing.

[Apologies for the late running of this article – between undertaking the research and publishing there were price changes significant enough to render the article, as originally written, inaccurate. Therefore, the article has been reworked, at the cost of time, to reflect the current price situation]

Xerox WorkCentre 3119

Street pricing in Germany is totally different however, with no clear distinction between the two groups but rather a clear (and totally bizarre) distinction between the two Xerox machines and the rest of the market (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Purchase Price - Entry-level Mono Laser MFPs

Note: all prices include tax and are sourced from a single store in each country

Two of the original four devices (Oki B2500 and Samsung SCX-4200) still reflect their UK positions at the bottom of the price scale but the Brother DCP-7010L is no cheaper than its big sister MFP, the DCP-7030 – it is actually 16% more expensive!

Xerox Phaser 3100MFP/S

Taking the cost of consumables as they relate to a nominal Cost Per Page, shows us that there is one big winner in the UK – with a nominal CPP about 24% lower than the average of the closely-grouped competitors and a massive 40% lower than the WorkCentre 3119. This is Xerox’s Phaser 3100MFP – which actually falls into the higher pricing group at hardware purchase, not the budget group!!

Figure 2.

Total Cost of Printing - Entry-level Mono MFPs

It is certainly this Xerox situation that really stands out as unusual here. At the risk of jumping about a bit, Figure 3 shows us that there is a massive difference between the cost of running Xerox’s Phaser 3100MFP against the WorkCentre 3119, simply because the consumables for the WorkCentre 3119 are so expensive – costing 66% more than supplies for the Phaser 3100MFP.

Supplies costs for the remaining six devices in the UK fall into a relatively narrow band in the middle ground between the two Xerox machines, with Canon and Oki proving to be the less expensive of the group.

It is certainly not Xerox’s intention that supplies for the WorkCentre 3119 should be so much more expensive than those for the Phaser 3100. List prices set by Xerox for the UK place the Phaser 3100 toner some 16% higher than toner for the WorkCentre 3119, not the other way around. This is a classic example of the channel setting the ultimate price to the end user according to where it feels it can make the best profit.

To add to the bizarre nature of pricing of Xerox products, and the comparison between Europe and the UK, the list price of the toner for the WorkCentre 3119 in Germany really is higher than toner for the Phaser 3100 – just like the hardware purchase price. But, while at list price the difference is just 6%, street pricing places the 3119 toner 41% higher than the Phaser 3100 toner.

Brother DCP-7010L

Brother DCP-7030

So, how does this all wrap up into Total Cost of Printing?

In a situation that we should all be very familiar with, the long-term Total Cost of Printing of all of these models very closely track the nominal CPP – not the hardware purchase price. Thus, it is the Xerox Phaser 3100MFP that is most cost-effective for end-users, long-term, regardless of the relatively high hardware price.

Figure 3.

Total Cost of Printing - Entry-level Mono MFPs

Note that for this group of printers, the long-term Cost of Printing over three years shown in the accompanying charts is calculated on the basis of 1,000 pages per month; is based on the use of maximum capacity supplies; takes into account any standard, or starter, supplies shipped with the device; and also includes the cost of purchase. All prices are low street price including tax.

Despite having no heavy discounting on certain models, in Germany the Total Cost of Printing does not track nominal CPP quite as closely as it does in the UK.

Samsung SCX-4200

Samsung’s SCX-4200 comes in as the most economical device long-term, beating the Phaser 3100MFP into second place, because, although the nominal CPP for the two models is identical, there is a huge difference in hardware purchase price. The SCX-4200 falls into Germany’s budget-priced group, which accounts for six of the eight printers, while it is the Xerox models alone that comprise the next strata up. It is the Phaser 3100MFP’s aggressive stance on supplies that is the most vital factor in keeping the long-term Cost of Printing competitive – just as in the UK.

When considering the fluctuations in Total Cost of Printing with page volume, there is relatively little to note because with so few consumables involved in a mono laser device (in most cases just a toner cartridge) there is less scope for movement.

Figure 4.

Total Cost of Printing - Entry-level Mono MFPs

OKI B2500 MFP

Samsung SCX-4300

Meanwhile, the Samsung SCX-4300 is at the top of the chart at the lowest page volume because of its low toner yield, combined with relatively high purchase price and cost of supplies.

By contrast, in Germany, with its pricing consistency, the only mover in the group is the Xerox Phaser 3100MFP. This model moves from the upper half of the chart, because of its relatively high purchase price, right down to a very competitive position at the bottom of the chart with increased page volumes because of its aggressive supplies pricing position, as mentioned earlier. Here it is Samsung’s SCX-4200 that takes the prize as least costly device over most of the page volume range.

Figure 5.

Total Cost of Printing - Entry-level Mono MFPs

So, there is one further question that needs to be asked here, “When there are budget-priced devices in each market, one of which also hits the sweet-spot for Total Cost of Printing in Germany, and the Xerox Phaser 3100MFP, which will cost very little more to run in the long-term but much more to acquire, what justification may there be for buying the Phaser 3100 rather than the budget machine?”

It is Samsung’s SCX-4200 that competes hardest with the Phaser 3100MFP, beating it in Germany, on the basis of long-term Total Cost of Printing, and coming close in the UK.

To establish any justification, we need to compare the main hardware specification features of the two models as well as consider purchase price and Total Cost of Printing.

In actually fact, there is little difference in specification between the two – partly because Xerox uses Samsung designed and built hardware for its Phaser 3100MFP anyway! They are, however, two slightly different engines with slightly different characteristics and features.

For instance, the Phaser 3100 is a 20ppm engine, against 18ppm for the SCX-4200, and has toner cartridges with higher yield. In addition, there is a choice of toner cartridges between 2,000-page standard cartridge and 4,000-page high capacity cartridge – a very useful page yield for the busy office! The Phaser 3100MFP also ships with more toner in its cartridge – 1,500 pages-worth compared to 1,000 pages-worth.

Most other features are either directly equivalent or just hanging in the balance. For instance, while one is faster to produce the first page when printing, the other is faster when copying. Also, although printing and copying features are quoted slightly differently, apparently give one an advantage over the other (and vice versa) in certain areas, in all probability these two machines are likely to be virtually identical in features offered and the differences are just down to the different ways in which the brochures have been laid out.

More importantly, Samsung appears not to offer manual duplexing on the SCX-4200 whereas Phaser 3100 users can benefit from that functionality and save on their paper costs.

Of most significance though, is the fact that Xerox ships Nuance PaperPort SE 11 with the Phaser 3100 MFP. This is a significant benefit to busy offices and small business where paper record keeping is proving problematic and the customer wants to make a move towards electronic document management.

In terms of value, it is the additional 2ppm print speed, the manual duplexing capability and the provision of PaperPort that makes the difference and amply justifies the higher hardware cost of the Phaser 3100MFP.

So, whether the lowest-cost, most economical, entry-level mono laser MFP in the UK or second lowest in Germany, the Phaser 3100MFP should prove to be the most attractive option for any organisation that considers performance combined with long-term economy to be the primary concern.

To finish off, having ended last week’s article with comment on the high specification of the Xerox WorkCentre 3119 at such a low entry price in the UK, the new Total Cost of Printing evidence to hand leads us to conclude that it is not an ideal choice for any but dyed-in the-wool Xerox hardliners or those whose priority is restricted to low capital purchase price and who have little understanding of long-term Total Cost of Printing.

~ END ~

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Supplies, Hardware, Printer Market, New Products, Special Offers, Comparisons, Pricing, Total Cost of Printing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.