A new printing technology from Kyocera Mita can reduce the high
running costs associated with colour printing by two-thirds, the
company claims.
Ian Joslin, the head of sales for Kyocera Mita, said: "You can't
make claims like this unless you can back them up. We've placed
evaluation units with five large pan-European corporations so they
can prove for themselves that our technology works and that our
cost saving are valid in real-world examples."
Kyocera said it would formally launch the FS-8000C colour laser
printer based on the new technology in the next three months.
Joslin claims that one large UK financial organisation is
evaluating several FS-8000C units and will buy 300 of them if it is
convinced that the manufacturer's claim of a £3m cost saving over
two years can be met.
The printer is based on amorphous silicon drum technology, which
was originally developed for monochrome laser printers.
But the technology has not taken off in monochrome printers, Joslin
admitted, because the cost per page is already relatively small.
"In colour printers where the typical cost per page is much higher,
the savings are much more important," he added.
Julio Vial, the printer research manger for the analyst firm IDC,
said: "We had heard about this Kyocera technology but we had yet to
see a working model. The problem with colour laser has always been
the high running cost, high initial price and slow speeds.
"We welcome this effort to reduce the total cost of ownership for
colour laser printers but there is still a big issue on how to
calculate accurate total cost of ownership. It will be interesting
to see the results of their trials."
On average, colour printing is eight times more expensive than mono
printing. This is due to toner cost and the fact that users tend to
print complex graphics that use more toner per page than simple
text.
IDC will next month release a report on the western European
printer market. The report will show the colour laser printer
market growing at around 30% a year but accounting for only 5% of
the total printer market.
Kyocera has said that it will release data validated by both
customers and third-party test labs to coincide with the launch of
the FS-8000C in mid-October.