A recent IDC survey in the US found that customers consider reliability the most important factor when making impact printer purchases. It can be no coincidence then that Oki impact printers are the undisputed market leader in this segment with over 60% market share.
"Oki`s share of the South African market mirrors that of the US and Europe with over 60% market share in the business dot matrix market - 250-349cps category. This market share has been steadily rising over the past few years and our latest range of impact printers is already taking the market by storm, before they`ve even hit our shores," says Neil Rom, MD of Printacom, official Oki distributor in SA.
"In fact, ever since rumours of the local launch of the new impact printers surfaced in the Oki channel, demand has soared - and this while we only have a limited number of demo units in the field."
The channel`s eagerness to get their hands on these models is understandable, as Oki has pulled out all the stops to ensure the new ML5500 series once again leapfrogs the competition and outperforms in everything from speed to performance.
Among the improvements customers can expect are increased print speed, buffer memory, enhanced power supply and throughput, as well as an impressive mean time between failure (MTBF).
"The ML5500 series boasts a top print speed of 570 characters per second (cps) with a record MTBF of 20 000 hours," Rom adds. "All models are equipped with integrated USB and IEEE parallel standard interfaces as well as a 128KB receive buffer."
A total of four printers make up the series. The ML5520 and ML5521 are 9-pin dot matrix printers supporting 80 and 136 character column widths respectively, while the ML5590 and ML5591 are 24-pin printers also supporting 80 and 136 character column widths.
All the printers support customers` existing infrastructures and deliver immediate increases in efficiency, throughput and compatibility without the need to adjust corporate architectures.
"The new Oki range has been designed and engineered to beat all contenders and further enhance Oki`s market leading position," Rom notes. The ML5500 series offers low cost of ownership, reliability, ruggedness and the ability to operate under extremes temperatures or environments all of which Oki is renowned for.
"With this type of functionality built into the printers it simply reinforces Oki`s position as the premier supplier of the most robust and reliable impact products on the market.
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Oki`s range of dot matrix, monochrome and colour laser printers continue to enjoy enormous success in SA. According to the latest local BMI-TechKnowledge figures for Q2 2003, Oki now owns 26.4% of the total South African dot matrix market and has retained second place with 18.7% of the high-speed colour laser market.
Printacom, a member of the MB Technologies group of companies, is the sole importer and the leading value-added distributor of the Oki range of printers to the South African reseller channel.
Oki is ranked among the top three printer brands worldwide and is the only printer manufacturer that designs and develops its own components, putting Oki ahead of its competitors in terms of printing technology. Supported by the skills and services provided locally by Printacom, corporate companies are offered high-end internationally recognised business printing solutions.
More information about Printacom is available at: http://www.printacom.co.za.
More information about OKI is at: http://www.oki.co.za
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