Xerox Deburs Two Sub-$2,000 Color Laser Printers

The company last week unveiled its Phaser 6200, a single-pass laser printer offering speeds of up to 16 pages per minute at 2,400 x 600 dpi or 8 ppm in the 1,200 x 1,200-dpi photo mode. Its estimated retail price starts at $1,999.

The second printer, the Phaser 8200, is a single-pass, solid-ink color printer operating at speeds of up to 16 ppm at 400 dpi or 3.5 ppm in the 1,200-dpi photo mode. The 8200 has an estimated retail price that starts at $1,499.

Small businesses should be interested in the new Xerox color printers because of their price points, especially as duplex versions are available in the mid-$2,000 range compared with the mid-$3,000 range a year ago, said Tim Freeman, sales manager for The Performance Group, a Ventura, Calif.-based Xerox solution provider.

Freeman said he receives the names of eight to 10 SMB customer prospects a week from the vendor, and the new pricing will help his company close more deals.

As prices for color solid-ink and laser printers fall, SMB customers are moving away from the inkjet printers they have been using, said Mike Adler, director of corporate sales for Future Computing Solutions, a Yorba Linda, Calif.-based solution provider.

Still, there are some post-sale considerations for solution providers. The Phaser 8200's ink sticks have been redesigned and are not compatible with ink sticks from previous solid-ink printers, said Xerox. Nor are they free, unlike the black sticks available with older models.

Although prices of ink sticks have dropped, solution providers lamented the loss of the free black ink sticks. "Free black ink sticks brought customers to Xerox," said Adler.

The estimated retail price for five ink sticks of the same color is $169.99, while the black sticks are priced at $89.99, said Peter Thornton, product marketing manager for the Phaser 6200 at Xerox's Office Printing Business division in Wilsonville.

With rebates allowed under the Xerox Peak Alliance reseller program, solution providers can make a margin of about 15 percent on the printers, said Michelle Riddle, channel marketing manager for Xerox's OPB unit.

The new printers are available directly from Xerox or through distributors including Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Synnex.

Channel sources said they expect Hewlett-Packard to introduce new SMB color laser printers shortly, but pricing for the line will be higher than that for the Xerox products.