Questioning the Value of Inkjet Printing in the Enterprise? Don’t.

Submitted by Jeff Blank, vice president, Direct Marketing Development, Xerox Corporation

HP has finally confirmed what the industry has long been speculating – they will no longer be offering or investing in its Edgeline technology for the enterprise. While I wasn’t surprised because the product by all accounts never grabbed a foothold in the enterprise, it did make me think about what this means to customers who may be considering alternatives to laser printing in the office.

Edgeline was an aqueous (water-based) inkjet system with many challenges, one-third of which was technology with the remaining two-thirds being sales and distribution issues. HP lacked the right enterprise channel relationships to have this market embrace a technology that suffered from poor print quality and reliability, limited media versatility and productivity.

Xerox’s inkjet technology is built on an entirely different platform – solid ink – which has no barriers. Solid ink is a proven technology (20 years in the field) that delivers what no other can in terms of low run cost, image quality, ease of use and reduced environmental impact — all without sacrificing productivity:

• Cuts the cost of color pages by up to 62 percent compared to traditional color lasers – without compromising print quality
• Cartridge-free design generates 90 percent less supplies waste and reduces manufacturing and transportation effects on the environment
• ColorQube 9200 Series MFPs uses 9 percent less lifecycle energy; produces 10 percent fewer greenhouse gases than a comparable laser device.

Key to the success of solid ink is Xerox’s vast sales channel. We make it easier for enterprise customers to work with Xerox and leverage our expertise. Our sales and service channels combined with our understanding of the needs of enterprise customers make solid ink and Xerox fit seamlessly into the office.

And here’s a stat worth noting: in three quarters (Q22009-Q42009) Xerox has shipped nearly as many ColorQube 9200 Series solid ink MFPs as HP shipped Edgeline units in three years (Q12007- Q42009) in the U.S. – that’s from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Hard Copy Peripherals Tracker for 2009 Q4.

For Xerox, it is full-speed ahead with our inkjet technology.  We’ll continue to invest in solid ink. This year we’ll launch more desktop products and preview Xerox’s first production inkjet system in May.  And, we’re actively working on the next-generation of the ColorQube MFPs.