BOSTON—Quality color printing has historically cost too much for small and midsize businesses or branch offices to do in-house. Hewlett-Packard is out to turn that history on its head, announcing on March 4 that it is slashing costs for quality color multifunction printers capable of printing, copying, scanning and faxing.
HP made the announcement at the 2008 AIIM/OnDemand event taking place here between March 3-6.
HP's new color inkjet and laser MFPs range in cost from $100 to $600, aimed as they are at the SMB, SOHO and consumer markets. HP also announced related supplies, service and branding announcements.
According to HP, the new color printers plus a larger line of specialty papers will let small businesses print professional-quality color documents for half the price of using an outside printer. "This gives SMBs better output, quality printers at an affordable cost," said Larry Trevarthen, worldwide director of marketing for HP SMB printers.
The new inkjets are: the HP Officejet Pro L7590 All-in-One, a duplexing network-ready flat-bed; the HP Officejet J6400 All-in-One, a flatbed with automatic two-sided printing and embedded wired/wireless networking; and the HP Officejet J4580 and J3600 All-in-Ones.
One analyst gave the new MFPs the thumbs up, saying that the pricing should put color into the reach of small companies or offices. "HP's new inkjet products will be good for small offices," said Kathy Martin, senior consultant for InfoTrends. "They're very functional for the price, with features you normally find on more expensive devices. HP's expertise and experience is helping them push the hardware and per-page price down, making color inkjets more attractive to small offices."
The laser devices are: the HP LaserJet M1319f MFP, HP's lowest-priced monochrome laser MFP; the HP LaserJet M1522 MFP series, HP's lowest-price full-function monochrome MFPs with features including fast print/copy/scan and fax speeds, flatbed color scanning, networking and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder; and the HP Color LaserJet CP1515n/CP1518ni Printers, which use photo-oriented toners and include HP Print View software for viewing print jobs in advance—e.g., to estimate document costs.
"$599 for a color laser MFP is a good price," said Martin.
The HP announcements also included its HP In-house Marketing Starter Kit, available with some of the new printers. It includes: paper samples and a Business Marketing Design CD with templates and other items for use in creating marketing collateral; HP's Marketing Impressions Portal, a central HP Web site to help SMBs do more of their printing in-house and to provide other marketing tools and resources; and Version 2.5i of HP's new Easy Printer Care software, which lets small businesses monitor two to 20 HP ink and laser printers, including usage reports and one-button supply reordering.
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This post originally appeared at eWeek.com. The original post is located at HP Cuts Color Printing Costs for SMBs, SOHOs
