So Really. What is the Big Deal about "Ink Jet"??

A very astute question, from a smart guy. Who happens to read my blog.

What is the big deal about ink anyway? According to HP, 90% of all the print in the world is in ink, not toner. And just look around, look at all the items in your office or home that have printing - my favorite DVD covers, my Michael Crichton Novel, the coffee can from Trader Joe's, the labels on the Mondavi bottles, my copy of FaceFull all ink.

The question isn't what is the big deal with ink, it should be what has been taking so long! Ink is everywhere - not toner.

To start with, ink systems like Edgeline have less moving parts then the xerographic brethren. Less heat no static. Heat being the biggest difference. 266 degrees to be somewhat exact is the temperature needed to melt the toner (see The Fundamentals of Xerography). Heat wears on materials like plastic, or motors or delicate optics; have you ever heard of somebody burning their fingers when trying to clear a jam? The answer is "yes".

I am not referring to the Ink Jets you may have at home - you know the ones, the printer costs 39 bucks after rebate, and the ink costs $69.00! (Gotcha!). I am talking about business machines. I am talking about replacing all those hot, dry toner boxes in corporate America with cooler, energy efficient, robust and reliable machines. Machines that in the end do the same thing as the hot-boxes, put color marks on paper.

This was bound to happen. All things change and get better - DOS moved to Windows, MultiPlan gave way to LOTUS 123 which in turn gave it up to Excel. It is the natural order of things. The time has come to begin to move the mundane function of printing into it's next evolutionary stage.

This is not about technology it's about innovation. It isn't about marketing hardware advancement as much as it is about a advancing a philosophy.

Xerox is not putting any more money into "photocopiers". HP invested 1.3billion in a new technology (Edgeline) not in improving an older technology(xerographic).

Xerox and HP - two Great American companies - innovating into newer and more reliable printing. Innovations like the color television, the radio, the automobile, refrigerators, micro-waves...It won't be long until the copy-cats of the far east jump on the "ink-jet" band wagon.

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So to summarize - What is so good about ink vs toner?

- cooler temperatures
- less moving parts
- color control
- more consistent and reliable
- less energy use
- more environmental/green

Surround the above with:

- Easy to use
- Easy to maintain and remove mis feeds
- Native to the network/connectivity(print, scan)

You you have a heck of a package - not just an "inkjet"

Again With The "Leasing"! Enough!

"GET THEM TO SIGN ON THE LINE WHICH IS DOTTED!!!!"I have proposed and had signed 1,000's of agreements: purchase agreements, uniform rental agreements, equipment lease, computer hardware service, copier service, printers service software support agreements.

But today, I had the unfortunate experience to witness one of my prospect's (and hopefully new client) pain over a HUGE buyout figure on one of his machines. This machine is a Konica Minolta BizHub C500. My client prints large( 400-500 page) monthly reports. Each report has some colored text sprinkled about. There are no hi-res pictures and no detailed, color schematics - just text and maybe a pie chart. Oh, and these reports are customer facing, revenue generating documents.

The lease has 26 months left on a 60 month agreement.

The service payment is combined into the monthly lease payment.

For the past 11 months, copy quality has dropped immensely, at last report, each page had a "pinkish hue", which I guess technically is a color.

The front of the lease clearly states, "...your payment obligations are absolute and unconditional and are not subject to cancellation, reduction or set off for any reason whatsoever. Both parties waive their rights to a jury trial..."

I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

I can go one - and I will - but for now, check these posts out and if you are selling equipment on a lease, do WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR CLIENT.

Here is the press release for this unit's roll out and from that release, " ...Pricing and Availability. The bizhub 500 and bizhub 420 are available through Konica Minolta's North American direct sales, authorized dealer and value-added reseller channels. The manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the bizhub 500 is $12,300..."

This blog post is pretty close to a normal "pre-sale" experience with leasing from the stand point of a School no less - oh but wait there is more. Check this post out - from a church!




***The information included in this post is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation.

Xerox is NOT Afraid of Edgeline...

Anne Mulcahy - From InsuranceNewsNet.com, Xerox Corporation at JPMorgan. A question posed to A. Mulchay ask what Xerox thought of regarding Edgeline.

The response - "...On HP and Edgeline, I think for all of you who followed it, I think there certainly was a lot of fanfare about Edgeline really being the entry with inkjet into the office marketplace for HP.

I think it would be fair to say that it has been extremely quiet. That any information available would suggest that it has had very little impact right now on the marketplace in total.

I think the challenges are ones that are inherent in liquid inkjet, which really doesn't allow you a lot of media flexibility with high quality, and that is I'm sure something that HP is working on.

We chose solid ink as a technology in that part of the market because of the advantages of quality and media flexibility. We're pretty excited about the prospects for solid ink going forward, and that is a proprietary technology for Xerox. So I would say we have not seen much from Edgeline.

We never take for granted the fact that competitors get better; but right now I think we have been able to compete very favorably against Edgeline in the marketplace.