TCPglobal - news, views and issues on total cost of printing

Issue #1014 – Note: This series of articles has been sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Company prior to being published in TCPglobal. But, as with all TCPglobal articles, it is nonetheless an independent assessment of the hardware and solutions concerned and expresses only the views and opinions of the author and not those of Hewlett-Packard. VIEW ARTICLE FREE OF CHARGE. – Hewlett-Packard’s Officejet All-in-One launch this autumn comprised three models – Officejet 6500A (mid-range A4 business inkjet); Officejet 6500A Plus (high-end A4 business inkjet); Officejet 7500A (A3 business inkjet). This third of four articles continues to look at competitive comparisons between these models and the available competition, this time moving on to the Officejet 6500A Plus.

Hewlett-Packard Officejet 6500A Plus

High-end A4 Business Inkjet
Moving up the range to the high-end models, represented by the Hewlett-Packard Officejet 6500A Plus, we might expect to begin to see the dynamics of serious competition playing a more significant role. But, in fact, there are few changes in relative cost-positioning between competitors.

Hardware purchase prices fall within a tight band from €172 to €211, the difference between the price of the two Lexmark models, while all four of the other models in the group fall within an even tighter band half way between these two extremes.

Median Hardware Purchase Price

We do see a considerable difference in the positioning of the Hewlett-Packard model within the group, however. Having seen the Officejet 6500A at the high end of the hardware price scale in the mid-range grouping, we see the Officejet 6500A Plus just scraping into position as the second lowest-priced model. This is not Hewlett-Packard’s intention and is the result of market forces on this highly specified and versatile device.

Canon Pixma MX870

Relative positions of ink costs also change little from the mid-range group (see chart on next page), with the main difference being caused by Canon’s use of individual ink cartridges in the MX870 instead of the tricolour cartridge used in the MX350. This even pulls the cost of black ink down to the level of the Brother black and 4-colour inks much closer to the level occupied by Epson, leaving the nominal CPP of Brother colour printing standing out on its own at a level some 14% above the nominal colour CPP of even Lexmark.

Total Cost of Printing

Note that for this level of machine, the mixed mono/colour CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table and charts is calculated on the basis of 1,000 pages per month; 70% pages in mono and 30% pages in colour; is based on the use of maximum capacity supplies; takes into account any standard, or starter, supplies shipped with the device; and also includes the cost of purchase. All prices are median street price sourced in Germany and include tax.

Brother MFC-795CW

Epson’s BX610FW benefits from a single high capacity black cartridge, quoted as yielding 1,035 pages, resulting in a fiercely fought battle between Epson and Hewlett-Packard where the same HP920 cartridges are used in the Plus version as in the base Officejet 6500A.

Pushing this through to a long-term CPP over three years, Canon separates itself from the Lexmark and Brother position at the top end of the Cost of Printing scale while Epson creeps a little closer to the class-winning position of Hewlett-Packard’s Officejet 6500A Plus – where the gap has narrowed to 9% from 22% between the mid-range models.

Total Cost of Printing

This still leaves Hewlett-Packard justifiably claiming lowest Cost of Printing for the class, however. And, not even modifying the number of pages printed per month or the balance of colour to mono pages printed changes this situation (see tge two preceding charts).

In fact, changing the balance of colour pages to mono pages to reflect heavy colour usage only goes to push the Brother MFC-795CW further out of court due to its high cost of colour inks.

Total Cost of Printing

The saving afforded by the Officejet 6500A Plus over the Stylus Office BX610FW, over three years at 1,000 pages per month, represents €104 or 57% of the initial Officejet hardware cost.

Lexmark Prevail Pro705

On the hardware front, we see all models with wireless networking – but only the Hewlett-Packard Officejet 6500A Plus and top-end Lexmark Pro 705 offering the faster wireless-n standard. We also see all but the Lexmark Pro 205 offering wired networking in addition to wireless.

Print speeds change little, except that the ISO speeds from Canon push closer to the 10/7ppm we see from the Hewlett-Packard model and, more importantly, the colour ISO print speed from Epson’s Stylus Office BX610FW now actually exceeds the speed of the Officejet 6500A Plus, at 9.3ppm, even though it has suffered to the point of losing 1ppm in ISO rated black print speed compared to the BX310FN (down to 15ppm).

Duplex printing is the other main feature that comes into play in this group compared to the mid-range group but we see it in only half of the models – Canon MX870, Hewlett-Packard Officejet 6500A Plus and Lexmark Pro 705. Canon actually goes one step further on the MX870 with a 35-sheet duplexing ADF, allowing automatic duplex copying from double-sided originals.

Epson Stylus Office BX610FW

It may seem then, that Hewlett-Packard has given some ground to its closest competitors in this class, particularly Epson. But, consider the functional benefits of the internet connectivity, cloud storage capability and ePrint facility, together with a paper input capacity that is more than double the capacity offered by the BX610FW, and the Officejet 6500A Plus still holds itself well apart on features and benefits, with the added bonus of also being the lowest-cost device in the class, even if by a fairly small margin.

In the final article in the 4-part series we check out the Officejet 7500A and the sole brand competing with it.

~ END OF PART 3 ~

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 at 14:19 and is filed under Comparisons, Hardware, New Products, Total Cost of Printing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.