the Color Copier

I can not tell you how many times I have walked into an account that uses a high-end, color copier to hear that prospect gripe about how long “it takes to print on this 30 thousand dollar machine and I print the same job in minutes on my HP color laser.”

I have seen this with my own eyes. K/M’s with all the bells, rips, memory etc etc – absolutely choke on .PDFs and the little HP chugs it out with no problems. Why is this?

Even after so many years of color, color copiers are still cumbersome. Color copiers with RIPs are still complicated and can be inconsistent – or worse, color copiers with RIPs and hardware and memory upgrades once configed and working with an application are now static. As long as nothing changes with the applications, or the operating environment all will be well.

But if the customer needs change, or a new software application is added or an existing application is upgraded – all bets are off. And this is a moving target for both the customer and the vendor. Copier hardware changes nearly every six months and the copier guys are going to talk about, sell, and support what is hot currently – they are not all that motivated to help upgrade or solve problems on a 2 year old color system. “All you need to do is go to the Canon site and upgrade the driver or flash the copier that’s all" - what kind of support is that ?!!

Committing service and support resources to the newest color system with the newest drivers and RIPs and ROMs and the minutia of details involved with supporting this specialized segment is daunting and expensive and unfortunately, well over the comprehension of most hardware tech's. Throw in shrinking profit margins and volume purchase commitments and monthly hardware forecasts and it becomes so much easier to just "sell the box".

Meanwhile, the HP 9500 color laser is spitting out 11x17 proofs.

Committing service and support resources to the newest color system with the newest drivers and RIPs and ROMs and the minutia of details involved with supporting this specialized segment is daunting and expensive and unfortunately, well over the comprehension of most hardware tech's. Throw in shrinking profit margins and volume purchase commitments and monthly hardware forecasts and it becomes so much easier to just "sell the box".

By the way, I hear that there is an Edgeline in some super-secret bunker outside of Boise churning out color at over 120 pages per minute. I also hear that an external RIP may be in the future for Edgeline.

And the I.T guys love this Edgeline thing.