Color Laser Printers: Reaching the Tipping
Point
LYRA RESEARCH
While worldwide color laser printer
shipments have increased dramatically, they still account for just a fraction of
all laser printer shipments, with almost eight times as many monochrome units as
color units shipped worldwide in 2004. For color laser printer adoption in
offices to increase radically, office buyers must decide to replace aging
monochrome printers with color devices. Many office users, however, still
believe color laser printers have not reached parity with monochrome laser
printers in a number of key areas.
One of
the primary barriers to adopting a color laser printer is acquisition price. In
2004, the industry saw some significant price decreases in this category. As a
result of the introduction of devices such as the Lexmark C510 and Dell 300cn,
the cost per color ppm for multipass printers dropped from $125 in 2003 to less
than $90 in 2004 (.
For single-pass printers, the price per
color ppm fell 40 percent—from $67 for the HP Color LaserJet 3500, introduced in
January 2004, to $40 for the Dell 5100cn, introduced in September 2004.