Battle for Desktop Printing is Getting Interesting
By Rick Littrell on December 13th, 2008
Just got finished watching the Kodak ESP-7 desktop ink jet printer/scanner/copier advertisement on TV. It started me thinking (Oh, Oh!). They clearly positioned themselves for quality (via long standing Kodak image) and cost of ownership (via cost of ink jet ink). Dramatic price difference illustrated for the ink (The cost of which has always been an issue with me. Cost way more than a bottle of fine California wine. That just doesn’t seem right to me!). Ok, enough of the side talk. Let’s focus on what is going on here.
The battle for print is at the desktop. When I want my print, I only want what I want, and I want it now! And, you are probably very much like me. And now it is integrated into a multi-purpose device (printer/scanner/copier). So, designing information workflows for delivery of content to the desktop will become the norm for the future.
High quality imaging on the desktop is almost a given. With photorealistic imaging and fade resistant supplies readily available, it certainly raises the bar of what we expect for quality at the desktop. Color management is available, though not widely used…yet! It will become simpler and more integrated at the system level. It will only become widespread once that happens.
Duplex printing will become the norm. More focus on optimizing every inch of the paper for imaging purposes, both front and back. How long will it take for the manufacturers to deliver more integrated finishing to the desktop? Trimming? Folding? Stapling?
We will see more devices that have integrated wireless networks. Slowly we are getting released from the shackles of cables. Having to hide them along the walls as we spread out our digital empires will become a thing of the past. Every time that I buy a new device, I consider its ability to connect to other devices without requiring “stuff”. I just want it to happen, without any requirements to connect physically.
The battle between HP & Kodak just went to the next level. The Kodak ad did all the side by side comparisons with HP. Of course, Kodak won every comparison. I was shocked! A Kodak ad finding the Kodak product superior…Amazing. I am sure that the evaluation was completely impartial. I wonder how HP is going to respond? What will Epson do? Is Xerox going to jump into this fray? Will Canon get involved? Who else dares to engage in this very open battle? It is going to get real interesting. Keep an eye on their mass marketing efforts. This will be a case of the battle going very public. May use some direct marketing efforts, but I would image that most would be through TV, internet, and social media implementations. You will hear more about social media marketing in the future. Keep an eye on it, because it is coming into our world.
Pricing is almost reaching ‘throw away” levels. Buy one every year to save on their “closed” ink jet supply imaging systems and added software functionality at a lower cost. Expect this trend to continue for some time. Now we have to consider…When does it become too wasteful? We are becoming a ‘throw away” society, but we are running out of places to throw things away. Need to continue to conserve limited resources and get as much usefulness for everything that we consume. This mantra will only strengthen as we move into the future.
So, it is going to be real interesting (and rewarding for the consumer) as the battle for desktop printing progresses. Print is moving to the individual and away from the ‘monster” printing plants that are in the market today. The print specialists that can add value that the consumer can not get on the desktop with grow. Print automation will increasingly be implemented both in industrial and consumer environments.
So, what does this all mean? I’m not sure, but as I look around the room that I am in now, print is on every table (some on the floor, as I finish reading my morning paper. Which I do every morning. My wife will make me pick it up before I start another task.) and I expect that to continue for a long time…Just, how it got there could be different? I may not have to go to the mail/paper box to get it to bring it in?
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6 Responses to “Battle for Desktop Printing is Getting Interesting”
By Gordy Cain on Dec 15, 2008 | Reply
Dead on target thinking. We are seeing our “web-to-print” customers moving much of what they print to desktop.
By Bob Bliss on Dec 17, 2008 | Reply
You bring to light a topic that has been intriguing me as well. I too was caught by the Kodak Ink Jet Printer Ad on TV. This is the first mainstream attack on HP’s dominance of the desktop printing world. It hits HP right in their high profit belly. When you can buy a black ink cartridge for under $10 and a color cartridge for under $15, that in itself will get your attention. But, when you add to that the cartridges will produce more than 3 times the output of an HP cartridge, people will statr lining up to place their orders. Escpecially if the quality and pigment life is what Kodak claims it to be.
This is definitely the start of a new ink jet printer revolution that will benefit every consumer,home office, small business and enterprise wide network of desktop printers. Is this a threat to the print for pay printing community?
It shouldn’t be, as long as Print Service Providers (PSP) look at the opportunity it will create for them. I will give one example of how printers can turn this latest advance and so called threat into profit.
Kodak has a huge presence in the printing community with CTP, digital presses, workflows, software, and other mission critical solutions to bring profits to PSPs. Why not open up their distribution of desktop inkjet and laser printing lines and supplies to PSPs. After all a PSP is supposed to be his client’s first line of expertise on printing.
If a PSP had a distributorship for these lines, they could use that extra service as a means of building loyalty with their customers. First of all, based upon the volume of offset or high end digital printing they provide to a client they could begin to replace all the company’s exisiting desktop printers with new desktop printers they would supply as long as they get the ink and paper replenishing contract.
On top of that, they could promote their services to new clients by offering a free desktop printer with every order of a certain value. Again, they would receive the ink and paper replenishing contract on each printer.
Putting a little thought into these promotions, they could even sell these printers and offer the client a premium of free printing i.e.; x qty Business Cards; x qty Flyers; $xx.xx in free printing of their choice; etc.;)
Once these desktop printers are in place, the printer can begin to offer added value services to their clients such as direct to ink jet printer proofing. Other possibilities would be to sell low cost per use professionally designed templates on-line for various general business uses. (i.e.; invitations, short run stuffers, etc.;)
A little imagination could be the difference in how a print service provider is perceived and rewarded. All it takes is thinking beyond traditional PSP roles.
By Charles Dostale on Dec 17, 2008 | Reply
Quote :
Color management is available, though not widely used…yet! It will become simpler and more integrated at the system level. It will only become widespread once that happens.
End quote.
Kodak needs to have a kiosk next to their printer cartridges in stores to enable consumer color management. The consumer will print out a test chart ( action built into their print driver ) that will be fed into the kiosk. The kiosk will measure the chart and calculate a profile for your printer. The profile would be attached to an e-mail message sent to you, and the print driver would have a tab that would allow the file to be loaded.
Also, wireless is too flakey and slow, give me wired every time.
Plus, I rarely have a need to print anything, it is too easy to share it digitally.
Chasd.
By Michael Josefowicz on Dec 17, 2008 | Reply
Bob,
I think you make a great point when you suggest that Kodak . . “open up their distribution of desktop inkjet and laser printing lines and supplies to PSPs. After all a PSP is supposed to be his client’s first line of expertise on printing”.
The business forms supply chain industry has morphed into sales organizations supplying their customers with everything from furniture to catalogs.
Given that the single most defensible value a printer has is a customer base that trusts him, this should be a no brainer way to allow the printer to monetize that value, increase the penetration of the Kodak product, and be an even more valued supplier to his customer.
By John Runco on Dec 18, 2008 | Reply
When Popular Photography testing the Kodak against its competitors - they were less than impressed:
“Overall, the 5300 came in at the bottom of the four in terms of image quality for both 3 star prints and scans. And while Kodak can actually claim dramatic saving in ink costs over the competition — it does so by comparing apples and oranges — or more accurately, draft quality prints to “lab quality” prints from other manufacturers.”
( http://www.popphoto.com/photoprinters/4009/all-in-one-printer-shootout-hp-photosmart-c7180-page2.html )
BTW, Ink cartridges for desktop printers never indicate how much ink they contain - so you can’t do fluid ounces to price comparisons.
By Bob Raus on Dec 31, 2008 | Reply
I like the fact that Kodak is challenging HP for sure. My questions are 1) why are they being SO aggressive right off the starting blocks – and 2) what additional moves are really possible going forward? As a seasoned product marketer, I fully understand the need for a compelling, hard-hitting value proposition at product launch, but this approach from Kodak to triple cartridge coverage while reducing cartridge cost by 2/3 just seems unnecessarily aggressive and rash in the long term.
Clearly either ONE of these things would be sufficient – coupled with the strength and reputation for quality of the Kodak brand - to take significant market share from HP. This of course assumes that they invested in a sufficient array of web/print/and TV advertisements along with retail store promotion/PR/displays/marketing which is clearly a Kodak strength.
**So why is Kodak willing to GIVE AWAY significant profits from these inks right up front when they could come to market at (only) ½ the price of HP – especially when other areas of their business are stumbling?
**And secondly, what is their next marketing move? We all know that you need to stay in front of the customer with continual messaging and new, updated value propositions. Kodak is a master at this and has one of the strongest brands on the planet because of it. With cartridge prices near $10/15, print quality at exceptional levels, and global support availability – where else can they go? This is one TOUGH act to follow!!
I have deep respect for Kodak execs and am baffled by this move. I believe it is an unparalleled, BOLD move in our industry and I am anxious to see if it pays off in the LONG term.
Having said that, I deeply admire HPs ability to dominate this market for the past 10-15 years. If they can convince customers to pay $50-$100 per cartridge – then they are brilliant and their company financial strength is proof of it.