HP to put laser printers within reach of everyone

Article Abstract:

HP announces the $1,495 LaserJet IIP, a low-end laser printer that prints four pages a minute. Market analysts predict retail prices for the printer will fall to below $1000, making the IIP a viable consumer alternative to high-end dot matrix and daisy-wheel printers. HP currently has 44 percent of the low-end laser printer market in the US and analysts speculate the aggressive pricing stems from Seiko Epson's and Toshiba's recent releases of low-priced printers. The IIP is marketed to eventually replace slow and noisy daisy-wheel printers, but it is also expected to compete with top-of-the-line dot matrix printers because it prints at about the same speed, is quieter, can print envelopes and does not require perforated, continuous feed paper. The IIP will offer the same technology as high-priced laser printers, but will support fewer fonts and less complex graphics capabilities.

Product introduction, Hewlett-Packard Co., HWP, Laser printers, Price cutting, product announcement, Laser Printer, HP LaserJet IIP (Computer printer)

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Color printers are slow to win acceptance

Article Abstract:

Color printers have not been selling well, despite there being many possible uses for them. Color printers' prices are falling below $1,000, but the cost of using color printers is prohibiting the color models from replacing the standard black-and-white ones. Color printing costs at least $1 a page for the paper and ink and can take several minutes, whereas $700 black-and-white printers only cost a few cents and take 15 seconds per page to print. The output of color printers is also not always high quality. Analysts predict that color printer sales will fall to 772,000, a drop of four percent, generating $1.2 billion in revenue. However, such printers have some good uses. These figures do not compare well to results in the printer market as a whole. Color printers can help document readability and are a relatively low-cost tool for making overhead transparencies.

Marketing, Column, Color printers, Growth (Physiology), Color, Growth, Industry Analysis, Outlook, Market Analysis, Printers

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Calling on the Spirit of Scrooge to attain global reach; power-supply maker hopes austerity fosters uninterrupted growth

Article Abstract:

American Power Conversion Corp, which makes uninterruptible power supplies for microcomputers, more than doubled its sales in 1989, to $35.4 million, and the company expects a near doubling in 1990, to $65 million. The company has achieved a 13.1 percent after-tax profit margin and has become the leader in the market for power supplies. The company wants to move into the international market, keeping costs and prices so low that foreign companies will not try to challenge it in the United States. To fulfill this ambition, American Power has implemented unusual austerity measures. According to Chmn Roger B. Dowdell Jr., the key to cost control is making everyone in the company responsible for costs and quality.

Management, Computer industry, Microcomputers, Equipment and supplies, American Power Conversion Corp., APCC, Uninterruptible power supplies, Cost control, Management Style, Microcomputer, Company Profile, Cost Reduction, UPS, Dowdell, Roger B., Jr.

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