The colour laser printing market is experiencing explosive growth and the market penetration attributed to laser technologies is predicted to continue spelling death for ink-based printing methodologies over the course of the next two years.
Committed to driving this trend and unprepared to rest on its laurels, OKI Printing Solutions has announced two new products in its entry-level to midrange C3000 range, and three new solutions in its midrange to high-end C5000 range.
If first impressions from customers and OKI`s South African channel partners are anything to go by, these five new units will experience a massive uptake and will continue OKI`s drive to be a leading provider of business colour printing solutions worldwide.
Neil Rom, managing director of Printacom, sole importer and brand representative for the OKI printer brand in the South African market says his company`s international principals have been strongly focused on making colour desktop and workgroup printing a pleasure for users for the past decade.
"The strides made in the desktop and small workgroup space have culminated in the release of the C3300 colour laser which delivers 12ppm in colour and 16ppm in monochrome as well as the C3400 colour laser that offers 16ppm in colour and 20ppm in monochrome. Both make use of a faster print engine.
"Along with the advances made in the desktop and small workgroup market, however, numerous improvements have been made in the larger workgroup and network printing environment," Rom adds.
"In this space, the C5600 and C5700 deliver 20ppm in colour and a blistering 32ppm in monochrome. One step up from this, the C5900 matches its new siblings in terms of monochrome performance, but delivers 26ppm in colour.
"The speed improvements on the C5000s have also been coupled with a new duty cycle, built expressly for the workgroup printing environment. The C5600, C5700 and C5900 now sport a duty cycle of 60 000 pages per month," he explains.
For all three of the new units in the C5000 range, Rom says the 32ppm monochrome performance level is the real differentiator. "This is especially the case when compared to other heavy-duty monochrome units on the market. In most cases customers would be hard pressed to find a monochrome-only unit capable of this speed, at this price (as well as cost-per-copy) with a 60 000 page per month duty cycle.
"As such, they fit the needs of the `colour cautious` buyer perfectly. The new C5000s give them the same functionality as a monochrome unit, only cheaper with the additional capability for colour at a later stage. We believe this is true investment protection," he affirms.
Both the C3000 and C5000 ranges have also come to market with a list of useful upgrades. "From duplexing options, additional memory and hard drives, as well as cabinets and additional paper trays, virtually all customers` needs have been catered for."
The C3000 and C5000 units now also sport ProQ2400 technology, an advanced technology that differs from standard print processes in that, when used in combination with a multi-level LED technology, it has the ability to deposit 32 levels of toner intensity on a printed page.
The results are consequently more accurate. This is also the first time that such advanced technology and print quality has been made available to users with entry-level machines.
"We have found that apart from the ability to customise a printing solution to customers` exact requirements, these upgrades allow resellers to offer `longevity` as an added feature," he opines.
Rounding off the list of new features, Rom says all five units also benefit from a new design philosophy OKI has adopted, simply called `S3`.
"S3 is an abbreviation for simple, solid and smart," Rom continues. "In the C3300 and C3400 `S3` translates into a 16% reduction in footprint and 29% reduction in total volume over older siblings in the C3000 range.
"For the C5000 range, `S3` means an updated look and feel. With the original C5000 design being almost three years old, these design improvements are a welcome change," he says.
"We are extremely excited about the market response these new units have achieved so far," Rom says. "To bolster this initial support, we will be embarking on a road show and product tour over the coming months.
"We are convinced the new C3000 and C5000 units will become firm favourites with businesses of all size," he concludes.
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Printacom, a member of the MBT group of companies, is the sole importer and the leading value-added distributor of the OKI range of printing solutions to the South African reseller channel.
OKI Printing Solutions specialises in designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing business printing solutions which empower organisations to communicate more effectively. As a market leader in the global colour printer market, OKI has representation in 120 countries worldwide offering innovative and leading edge products and services.
OKI Printing Solutions is ranked among the top three printer brands worldwide and is one of the few printer manufacturers that designs and develops its own components and technology, putting OKI ahead of its competitors` technology. OKI Printing Solutions is dedicated to continually improving the scope and value-add of its printing solutions and all of these initiatives are ably supported by Printacom through its extensive skills and service offering.
More information about Printacom is available at: http://www.printacom.co.za More information about OKI is available at: http://www.oki.co.za
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