Monday, April 9, 2007

HP's Touted Edgeline MFP's "Ready to Rock"?

Information sure has been limited prior to the US launch of HP's CM8050 and CM8060, however isn't the Internet fantastic? I was able to download a brochure on the CM8050/8060 from HP's site in Singapore.

Truly, State of the Art Technology from HP......when it comes to ink technology! HP is claiming speeds of 71ppm for the 8060 and 57 ppm for the 8050. One phrase that always concerns me is this one "up to" , that's how the CM series is being marketing, with this phrase "delivers speeds at up to 71ppm for less complex documents". This sounds to me that this is a "draft mode" and in order to have better quality you will need to sacrifice speed, how much speed? I have no clue at this time. I will say if I am spending $15K plus on a machine, I do need to know what speed it will print my color documents at. Also, what constitutes a "complex document"? Is it MS Word, MS Publisher, Quark, Pagemaker, give me a little help when I'm reading the brochure.

I truly love the idea of a print head that does not move and the paper does, this is awesome technology. But, if HP is gonna play in the big boys back yard, why would they develop a system that can only handle a max 58lb stock? Canon has proved over the years that customers who buy color MFP's want thick media flexibility, plus the ability to duplex the thick media. Plus, how often do I have to replace the ink cartridges? Am I putting a gallon of ink in at a time, ya and you all thought gas was expensive!

When trying to get an idea of the cost per page on the CM series all I read is that the cost is "around" 25% less than color printers and then this disclaimer at the bottom of the document reads IDC Insight, “HP’s Edgeline Technology: HP Edges Ink into the Office”, 2006—”IDC estimates the colour cost per page of the Edgeline technology-based MFP will be about 25% less than the average colour cost per page of similarly featured colour laser MFPs from competing manufacturers”. Hey, I'm ok with this also as long as you can tell me what the average cost is, just seems like to much mumbo jumbo to me.

Some other items that I found is a 12 second FCOT (first copy), 1,500 Sheet of standard paper supply with three paper trays, an 80 sheet by-pass paper tray, plus a choice of three output devices. Oh, forgot this one, the CM8060/CM8050 weighs in at hefty 725LBS!!, with out accessories. It also seems that no booklet maker was designed for this system.

So, what does this mean for the other MFP manufacturers, Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, Kyocera Mita, Sharp and the others? I'm not sure.... I tend to think that HP will stay at home in the markets they already own, some aggressive dealers will branch out and take some business from the their rivals. To date I have not seen any prints from these units, nor the type of paper that it's printed on. I've heard that the color cpc will be at .03 cents and black at .01, that's very inexpensive for color and average for black. Good reps will put their heads together and find a way to sell against it for awhile, however it seems like ink technology is the future for hi speed color I will be in Boston later this month for the "On Demand Show" and hope HP will have the unit there.

See you in Boston!

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