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The halo effect
Business inkjets are one
of the few growth areas in
office printing. Their unique
selling point – colour at
twice the speed of laser and
half the cost – has gone
down well in small and micro
businesses with 1-10 users.
According to John Kelly,
senior business manager
at Epson, the company’s
Workforce Pro inkjet MFPs
have also done well in key
vertical markets.
“We have had a lot of
success in education. The
assumption is that a large MFP
and a centralised strategy will
save money. But we have shown
that we can deliver the running
costs of a large MFP and
centralised strategy with a local
printing approach – and still
have the efficiency of a printer
in every classroom, which
saves time and means that
teachers don’t have to leave the
classroom to pick up prints,”
he said.
He added: “We have also
had success in customer-
facing environments, such as
retail, thanks to Epson’s clean
print technology. The fact that
there is no heat and no smell
has gone down very well in
environments like retail.”
HP, which claims to have
50-60% of the business inkjet
market, is also strong at the low
end where sales of its Officejet
Pro devices have been growing:
“May to August was our biggest
period yet,” said HP UK&I
Officejet brand manager Daffyd
Hollis.
X series
He attributes sales growth at
the low end to the ‘halo effect’
of the HP Officejet Pro X series,
which started shipping in
February. With very high colour
print speeds of up to 70 pages
per minute, these devices
have moved business inkjet
technology up the food chain
and reinforced its business
credentials, even if, with single
digit market share in their
segment, initial sales have not
been as high as expected.
Hollis stressed that this
was mainly due to supply
problems that have now been
resolved. “When we released
the product we thought the
printer-only model would be
the most popular, but the MFP
model accounted for a bigger
proportion of sales by a ratio
of 60:40. We sold out of MFPs
very quickly. But we have
addressed that and sales are
now building up. Our aim next
year is to get to double-digit
share,” he said.
A firmware upgrade
announced on October 1 that
adds support for cost control,
user authentication, pull
printing and workflow solutions
is likely to drive further
demand in medium and large
businesses, which, according
to Hollis, have been among the
most enthusiastic supporters of
the X series.
“Officejet Pro X customers
cover the full spectrum of
businesses including slightly
bigger businesses than we were
expecting. We thought initially
it would appeal to the 1-100
desk space, but it is proving
popular in the 100-500 seat
space, including public sector
organisations,” he said.
The main attractions of the
Officejet Pro X series are the
low cost per page, followed by
the rich feature set and fast
print speeds. Energy efficiency,
Hollis suggests, is not a big
factor. The energy consumption
of business inkjets sounds
impressive – up to 80% lower
than comparable laser printers
– but, according to HP’s
calculations, savings are just
£30 over a three-year period.
(For Epson’s John Kelly,
energy consumption is just
one part of the environmental
argument. “The green message
is about far more than power
consumption. We have only four
consumables per printer; there
is no fuser or transfer belt to
worry about; and if you look at
the amount of consumables
needed to print 10,000 pages,
the packaging, transport costs
and carbon footprint are much
lower than they would be with a
laser,” he said.)
Another attraction for larger
businesses, says Hollis, is
that the low purchase price
of business inkjets gives
customers more flexibility.
“The cost per page is close
to departmental devices but
the purchase price is lower so
you could buy several of these
to give you built-in contingency
in case a device breaks down.
And where it does work well
is where you have smaller
offices, for example remote and
back offices, or where space
is limited. We are working with
the likes of BUPA whose care
homes don’t have high print
volumes but do want a fast, low
cost device for small offices,”
he said.
This flexibility also enables
HP managed print services
(MPS) partners to compete
against traditional copier
manufacturers.
“Typically, HP laser devices
haven’t been as competitive
as some of the other brands,”
Hollis said. “The Officejet X
series gives the HP partner
base a way of competing with
the likes of Ricoh and Xerox that
have a managed print business
model. It enables them to offer
cost-effective solutions by
supplementing a fleet with a
mixture of Officejet X and laser
devices.”
With the introduction
of Brother’s new high
speed printer, Epson’s new
PrecisionCore print chip and
new business inkjets due to
be launched by HP and Epson
next year, business inkjet’s halo
effect shows no sign of fading.
PRINT.IT
21
www.binfo.co.uk
Business Inkjets
The business inkjet
market is once again
in the spotlight,
as HP announces
enhancements to
its Officejet Pro
X series, Brother
introduces its 100
pages per minute
mono inkjet (see
page 22) and Epson
develops a new
scalable inkjet
technology that has
applications in office
printing as well as
industrial sectors
(see page 3).