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BUSINESS INKJETS
44
In October 2010, at Canon Expo
in Paris Mr Shimizu, the then chief
executive of Canon’s Inkjet Products
Operations, told
PrintIT
categorically
that “Canon will never challenge the
existing laser market with inkjet”.
When asked whether Canon was going
to follow Epson's lead and launch an inkjet
MFP to go up against laser devices,
Mr Shimizu highlighted HP’s use of Canon
technology in its laser printers and made
it clear that Canon had no intention of
disrupting that lucrative source of income.
He said: “On the question of whether
inkjet has the potential to penetrate the
existing laser market, technically it could,
but it’s unlikely from a business strategy
standpoint. HP and Canon have more than
50% share of the business market for
laser printers. Why would we reduce that
through inkjet sales? Fifty per cent is a big
market share. What is the additional value
in replacing laser with inkjet?”
This position made sense from Canon’s
point of view, but when HP, an owner of
inkjet technology but not laser, asked the
same question it clearly came up with a
different answer.
Its introduction of inkjets that offer
colour printing at twice the speed and
half the cost of comparable laser devices,
starting with the HP Officejet Pro series,
then the Pagewide Officejet Pro X series
and most recently HP Officejet Enterprise
models optimised for managed print
services, has already had a significant
impact on sales, and this is likely to
continue in the future.
Canon introduces Maxify range of business inkjets to
complement the i-Sensys laser range not compete with it
Canon enters
business inkjet market
Speaking to
PrintIT Reseller
, Gary
Tierney, head of HP's printing division in
the UK and Ireland, said recently: “The
Officejet Pro X was released last February
(2013) and in calendar Q4 it got to 10%
market share in the small work team laser
segment. If it was its own vendor it would
have been number four in the market. If
we achieve our share goal in 2014, the
Pro X on its own will be number two to HP
LaserJet.”
No wonder Tierney describes the
Officejet Pro X and Enterprise series as
“really disruptive technologies that change
the dynamic of the laser MFP market”.
Epson, too, sees the disruptive potential
of business inkjets. In addition to its
growing range of printers and MFPs –
expanded this month with the launch
of the Epson Workforce Pro WF-8000
series – it has developed new models
specially designed for MPS providers.
Thanks to extra large ink supplies of up
to 75,000 pages per colour (compared
to ink capacities of up to 10,000 pages
on standard models), Workforce Pro
Replaceable Ink Pack System (RIPS) devices
have much lower servicing and support
requirements and generate considerably
less waste than other printers. For some
customers, one set of ink sacks might be
all they ever need.
Faced with growing sales of business
inkjets, it was almost inevitable that Canon
would at some point have to change
strategy and compete in this segment of
the market, so there was a lot of interest
but little surprise when at the start of
September Canon introduced a five-strong
range of business inkjets marketed under
the Maxify brand name. Significantly the
new models were announced at a joint
launch with new i-Sensys laser devices.
Mark Robinson, market business
developer at Canon UK and Ireland, told
PrintIT Reseller
that Canon’s position
now is to offer home office and business
customers a choice of technologies.
He said: “Our positioning statement is
that we will offer choice across laser and
inkjet including business inkjet in the form
of the Maxify range. We are not going to
prefer one over the other. The launch last
week was a joint launch, which in itself
was a different tack for Canon. We have
a joint business proposition through two
sub-brands – i-Sensys and Maxify.”
...Canon has
been careful
to clearly
de-lineate its
proposition.
Colour
There are five colour models in the
range, four all-in-ones and one printer-
only (the Maxify iB4050).
Output
All offer print speeds of 23/15 ipm
(mono/colour), auto duplex and PC-free
wireless printing from mobile devices.
The first page out time is 8 seconds.
Ink
All take high yield XL inks for lower
running costs, with yields of 900 colour
/ 1,200 mono pages (MB 2050/2350)
or 1,500 colour / 2,500 mono pages
(MB5050/MB5350/iB4050).
Paper handling
All all-in-ones have a 50-sheet
automatic document feeder: the top
of the range MB5350 has a duplex
automatic document feeder for single-
pass, two-sided scanning/copying.
Paper capacity
MBx050 models have a paper capacity
of 250 sheets from one tray; MBx350
models and the iB450 have a paper
capacity of 500 sheets from two trays.
Recommended print volume
The MB5050, MB5350 and iB450
printer support monthly print volumes
of 1,500 pages.
Prices
£159 for the Maxify MB2050
£189.99 for the Maxify MB2350
£209.99 for the Maxify MB5050
£319.99 for the Maxify MB5350
£159.99 for the Maxify iB4050
Maxify at a glance
