HP edges closer
Published May 17, 2007 at 3:39 pm · Filed under Features
With the launch of its first Edgeline MFPs, HP is confident that it will soon become the market leader in copiers too
In a significant development for the MFP market, HP has launched the first office colour devices based on its revolutionary Edgeline technology, which uses fixed inkjet printheads that span the width of the page to achieve print speeds of up to 70 pages per minute.
The result of $1.4 billion investment and four years’ research and development, HP Edgeline provides an alternative to laser technology for high-speed colour multifunction devices (MFPs).
There are other ink-based MFPs on the market - the Ricoh MP C1500sp and the 120ppm Riso HC5000 series - but they are very much on the margins (entry-level and production respectively) and have their limitations. Ricoh’s machine is very slow (6ppm colour/15ppm mono), and the print quality and multifunction capabilities of Riso’s machine are not good enough for general office use.
These are not criticisms that can be levelled at the HP CM8060/CM8050 Colour MFPs, which are as fast and versatile as any other office MFD. With respective print speeds of 50ppm colour/60ppm mono and 40ppm colour/50ppm mono, they are designed to handle high volume workloads in busy offices; print quality is said to be good; and with print, copy, fax and scan to email/folder, they provide the usual MFD features.
Cost control
So is the HP CM8060/CM8050 just another office MFD or does it offer enough benefits for business buyers to switch from tried and trusted laser technology to inkjet printing, which many associate with high running costs?
Neil Sawyer, HP enterprise marketing manager for the UK and Ireland, argues that the devices do offer real benefits, principally in relation to print costs. “From a mono printing perspective, the cost per print is comparable to, if not better than, the competition, he said. “But when we start to look at the colour cost per page that’s where the customer sees dramatic benefits against laser and traditional MFPs.
Sawyer was unable to provide any figures to back up this claim, partly because the MFDs will only be available on a contract basis with a cost per page determined by print volumes. However, he suggested that colour costs were likely to be up to 30% cheaper, thanks to some innovative firmware features.
The most impressive of these is Colour Accent, which counts a page with just a small bit of colour, such as a blue hyperlink or small logo, as a mono page and charges accordingly. On competitor machines, these would be charged as colour pages, though administrators can minimise the problem by setting rules so that email messages are automatically printed in black and white, say.
Another unusual feature is different pricing for Professional Colour and General Office pages. The former are bolder, more saturated and best for customer-facing materials; the latter slightly lighter and more appropriate for internal use.
Again, without pricing details it is impossible to know whether this is a cost-saving feature or one that will lead to runaway print costs through excessive use of the Professional Colour option (and specialist papers) - though, as Sawyer points out, this can be controlled. “If IT management want to allow people to switch between the two qualities they can do so. But they can also lock down the Professional Colour to maintain the lowest cost per page, he said.
Other benefits cited by Sawyer include low power consumption compared to laser devices, which use heat to fix toner to the page; greater reliability from fewer moving parts; the ability to print onto a wide range of media; a large colour LCD screen; and a user-friendly interface that uses LED lights and video technology to guide users to the source of a problem and show how it can be resolved.
Sawyer concedes that HP will have a tough task persuading businesses of these benefits. “There is a huge journey for HP to take to educate our customers about this, he said. “There is a culture change required for people to accept Edgeline as a new technology and embrace it.
However, he is confident that HP will succeed. “Given that we are Number One in virtually every other market in the printing space, our next aim is to become the Number One in the copier and MFP marketplace. We will be Number One in two to three years time and we are committed to Edgeline as part of a complete product portfolio, he declared.
Edgeline is certainly a very interesting new technology. No one considering buying a new high-speed colour MFD should make their choice without first taking a close look at the HP CM8060/CM8050.
