IBM has introduced what it called a "plug-and-print"
wireless Lan adapter to support enterprise network printing on
high-volume machines.
Mark Andrews, vice president of worldwide marketing for IBM
printing systems, said the Wi-Fi printing adapter shows how the IBM
printer product line offers enterprise users wider choices than the
line of printers introduced yesterday by Dell.
Andrews dismissed Dell's printers as "entry-level" models
focused on consumers and the low end of the enterprise market. IBM,
which buys its printers from a number of suppliers, including
Hitachi and Ricoh, offers an entry-level enterprise model priced at
$639 (£407) with a maximum output of 45 pages per minute (ppm),
slighty more than double the 22 ppm of the Dell workgroup printers
manufactured by Lexmark International .
Those printers have a base price of $499.
Andrews said the hardware cost of printers is only a small part
of the overall cost of an enterprise printer, with larger,
networked machines more cost effective than a series of smaller
machines scattered about offices.
Paul Preo, IBM's group line manager for workgroup printers, said
the Wi-Fi printer adapter, which is priced at $212, would make it
easier for enterprises to hook up users to a networked printer,
adding that the Wi-Fi adapter would help companies "starved" for
Ethernet ports connect network devices as well as organisations
located in environments where it is difficult to install wired
network printer connections.
Greg Davis, director of sales and marketing for the Dell printer
group, declined to say whether his company would introduce wireless
printers.