Loading ...The Rising Tide of Ink
by Bradley Hughes, Senior Analyst, IDC Canada
The world of printing has never been considered an exciting topic but in the past year we’ve seen a number of big advances in print technology. Vendors are increasingly placing bets on creating new disruptive technologies in order to shake up the old “inkjets for consumers, laser for business” order. As well, these technology advances all come about at the same time as the world of monochrome digital printing has hit its peak and the vendors all race to position themselves as the vendor to turn to for colour printing.
Thus far the biggest splash has been made by HP which introduced its Edgeline MFPs this summer. These devices use page-wide arrays of inkjet heads to produce colour prints at up to 50 pages per minute (ppm)at an apparently cheaper cost than a similar laser device. It’s too early to make comment about how these models have affected the market but the feedback thus far has been positive.
Of course, Xerox has had page-wide arrays for years due to its acquisition of Tektronix and their solid ink devices that currently run at 30 ppm for colour prints. Also in the mix is Ricoh’s GelSprinters which use a “viscous ink” and also run at 30 ppm.
The other big announcement this year for developments in ink printing was by a little known company from Australia known as Silverbrook Research. In March, Silverbrook showed off some prototypes (using what they call Memjet technology) that claimed to print at 60 ppm in full colour.
What this leads to is a possible showdown between ink and laser technologies in the battle for supremacy of the digital colour printing market. It will be interesting to see if the vendors involved in developing these new technologies can overcome the inherent bias that business purchasers have against ink devices. For example, IDC’s research has shown that over 70% of IT Managers in large & medium organizations believe that laser printing offers a cost per page that is much lower than ink. According to the claims of these vendors that may not be the case anymore. The trouble may be that while they’ve solved the problem in technology it will take much more effort to educate the end-user.
Of course, ink does have one good thing going for it: no airborne ultrafine particles.
(More on that next week)
Posted on August 31st, 2007 by Brad Hughes and filed under Research |