This month marked Kodak’s first year anniversary in the inkjet market space and the company showed no signs of changing its low-cost ink strategy with its new ESP 3 all-in-one (AiO) printer.
Kodak’s ESP 3 AiO printer is targeted at the enterprise parent customer and will be made available next month and follows Kodak’s recent release of its 5000 series AiO printer line-up, which launched last fall.
After establishing its presence in the inkjet market space, Michelle Warren, a senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, said because Kodak has entered into a market that’s new for them, its products are not as widespread.
“Kodak is doing well in Canada but they’re not dominating the market by any stretch of the imagination,” Warren said. “The market is still being dominated by HP and Canon.”
The ESP 3, Vance said, will eventually replace Kodak’s 5100 AiO inkjet printer. What’s different this time around he said, is that the new printer is sleeker, smaller and lighter, which therefore makes it easier to move around. Similar to the 5100, ESP 3 also has print, copy and scan capabilities and its printing speeds can reach up to 30 pages per minute (ppm) in black and up to 29 ppm in colour.
A new software feature, called Facial Retouch will also be included with the ESP 3 printer. According to Vance, it’s a user intuitive software which can correct blemishes and other image imperfections with the click of a button. Vance also said for current Kodak AiO printer users, the software can also be downloaded free of charge directly from Kodak’s Web site.
Vance added that Kodak will maintain its focus on the AiO printers for now. “That’s where the growth and market is,” Vance said. “Overall, the message and appeal really hasn’t changed. Given that the cost to print is up to 50 per cent less than other regular inkjet printers and being able to produce lab quality prints that will last a lifetime if printed on Kodak paper, these are what’s gravitating customers to our products,” he added.
Warren said Kodak makes most of its money off of its consumable products which include film, batteries and SD cards.
“People can still get printers for a bit cheaper, but the pricing is not out of whack at all,” Warren said. “The ESP 3 AiO printer would be good for consumers and for small businesses because it’s small and affordable enough to have in offices and small departments,” she added.
Vance said Kodak’s ESP 3 AiO printer will start shipping to the Canadian retail supply chain towards the end of March and consumers and retailers should expect it to be widely available across the country by May with a MSRP of $129.99.
