Hewlett-Packard is expanding its LaserJet portfolio with eight new offerings the company says address customer needs in emerging markets and provide competitive products in the mono, colour and all-in-one markets in North America.
Jean-Paul Desmarais, business customer marketing manager at HP Canada, said the manufacturer is “looking to improve processes to help people use printers, and we want to design products that will suit customer needs in emerging markets like China, India, Russia and Brazil so they will choose HP just as often as rest of the world.”
In addition, he said, more marketing materials are being brought in-house to give customers flexibility to cost-effectively print collateral material for their businesses.
“We’re adding services and support around the products to make it simple to use, easy to maintain and provide great print quality using HP’s Marketing Assistant Software,” said Desmarais.
“It allows a company to take a standard look and feel and apply it to different vehicles like letterheads, envelopes and catalogues. It’s a great way for small businesses to start doing their own stuff.”
HP has also partnered with iStockphoto, allowing customers access to over 700,000 stock photographs directly from HP’s in-house marketing Web site portal.
Canadian perspective
HP’s new entry level monochrome LaserJet 1018, with an estimated street price of $149, is expected to be a popular device in Canada for those looking to add a second printer at home, said Desmarais.
For small businesses, HP is introducing the Colour LaserJet 2605 series with a starting price of $549. With 10 pages per minute (ppm) in colour and 12 ppm in mono, the 2605 also includes a photo card slot, which Desmarais said is ideal for small businesses that do their own photography.
The new all-in-one offerings (3050, 3055 and 3390) are driven more by horizontal trends, said Desmarais.
“The consolidation of devices is about cost savings, space savings, simplification of processes, reduction of vendors, reduction of consumables – all good efficiencies for businesses.
“These are three devices targeted for a small office or remote office to be that one consolidated device,” he added.
According to IDC, HP held the number one position in the mono LaserJet market in the last quarter of 2005 with 50 percent.
“It’s not ground breaking technology, but they are updating their products with faster speeds, listening to their customers and finding niches,” said IDC analyst Bradley Hughes.
“They can put out a product to enable a small business in Japan or India but here it allows them to move volume units and keep the supplies business going in the Canadian space,” he added.
