Lexmark Colors World For Free

The Lexmark 510 color laster printer will be priced at $499, and the network edition of that printer will be priced at $799.

The price changes make permanent some recent promotions that Lexmark has been running where the two printers were sold for $399 and $699, respectively.

Since running those promotions, Lexmark has seen significant growth in the color printer category, company executives said.

"We are already seeing triple-digit growth around color printers," said John Linton, vice president of the solution provider channel at Lexmark.

Although there is still a market for monochrome printers, Lexmark expects a higher percentage of sales to be driven by color printers, said Jeff Roberts, manager of U.S. product marketing at the company.

Solution providers have been working within a document technology market with a growing number of competitors in the channel and an increasing emphasis on color technology. Market research has shown significant migration to color solutions.

"Customers are looking to color as a default," said Will Hanley, director of product business development at Custom Computer Specialist, a Hauppauge, N.Y.-based solution provider and Lexmark partner. "I think it will bring Lexmark back to the forefront, but I think it may cause a ripple effect with other manufacturers doing the same."

Hanley said that Lexmark has remained one of the more profitable printer brands in his company's lineup, largely due to its channel compensation structure, and that such a dramatic move could insulate it from competitors trying to beat it with multifunction devices in a market migrating toward system consolidation.

"You're not going to be able to displace four color printers with an MFP that just does black and white," Hanley said.

EDWARD F. MOLTZEN contributed to this report.