HP guns for the monochrome market with printer launch

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 7 Oct 2004 at 16:10

HP celebrates 20 years of the laserjet with reams of new printers.

The company says that the 27 new products it is launching will replace '50 per cent of the entire printing industry's monochrome inventory.'

Following two decades as market leader Hewlett Packard is keen to scotch rumours of the imminent death of the mono laser. To prove it, the company has launched a huge range of new products into the market place in the run up to Christmas. Among the new machines on offer is the HP LaserJet 1160 which fires up and is ready to go in seconds - from £219 inc VAT. The HP LaserJet 1320 boasts WiFi, extra paper capacity and double-sided printing as standard - from £249 inc VAT. The HP LaserJet 2400 is aimed at small businesses with an impressive print speed of 33ppm - from £449 inc VAT. The HP LaserJet 4250 and 4350 print at 43ppm and 52ppm respectively and are networkable - from £719 inc VAT.

'There has been talk in the industry around the fact that mono printing is a declining market with reductions in colour price points resulting in customers moving away from mono. This is simply not the case, and the latest market figures back this up,' said Laura Seymour, Personal Laser Category Manager, HP UK.

Finally, the HP LaserJet 9050 boasts a 50ppm print speed and can handle wide paper format and supports forms and SAP or cluster printing - from £2,179.

Outside of the Laserjet market, HP has also brought out its DeskJet 6840 aimed at the networked home. The printer can be connected via Ethernet or 54Mbps WiFi and prints at 30ppm monochrome and 20ppm colour. The machine can also print up to 2x A4 borderless documents for large panoramic pages and costs around £199.