HP Drops PageWide Printer Production, Models Discontinued. Supplies Available for Five Years, Partners Disappointed.

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HP Drops PageWide Printer Production, Models Discontinued. Supplies Available for Five Years, Partners Disappointed.

HP has served the market for business inkjet devices with PageWide technology of a fixed printhead across the width of the page. Now that’s the end of it. HP partners react angrily.
(Google Translated)

HP is still advertising its business inkjet printers with the company’s own PageWide technology on the company’s website. The devices should be characterized by low total costs and environmentally friendly energy efficiency. But that should end now.

Almost ten years after the introduction of PageWide printers in the office segment, HP is saying goodbye to innovative inkjet technology with a fixed print head.  The product range will be completely discontinued.

As ChannelPartner has learned from HP partners, HP lets the PageWide devices for office use in A3 and A4 format die. The technology, which is based on a fixed print head that prints the entire width of the page, is only continued in the large format area.

According to HP, the reason for this is the simplification and optimization of the print portfolio and future investments. With this one wants to do justice to the “market dynamics”. “For this reason we will concentrate future investments on our LaserJet portfolio of A4 and A3 hardware and discontinue the sale of the PageWide A3 and A4 office printing portfolio products”, company spokesman Heiko Witzke confirmed to ChannelPartner.

Popular with public clients
The PageWide devices for office use are particularly popular with public sector clients. The products are considered more economical, more energy-efficient and lower in emissions than comparable laser printers. Dealers who have won projects with these arguments must now try to make HP laser printers attractive to their customers, or switch to products from the competition.

In projects in which inkjet devices are explicitly required, HP partners will probably no longer be able to score points. Although the printer manufacturer still has ink devices in its portfolio with the Officejet series, these are more intended for home use and the SMB segment. In recent years, Epson in particular has addressed the business ink market. So the HP decision should have sparked great joy among the Meerbuschern. “I assume that Epson in particular will win here,” said a retailer in an interview with ChannelPartner.

Ink and replacement parts available for five years
At HP, however, they are of the opinion that the lost business in business ink can be compensated for by laser printers. “When HP introduced PageWide technology in 2012, it was designed to meet the need for a sustainable, lower cost per page printer for small office environments. However, over the past decade, HP innovations have resulted in significant improvements in LaserJet technology in In terms of price, quality, size, service and energy consumption, “explains Witzke. LaserJet A4 printers of the current generation should now be on par with PageWide printers in terms of energy consumption. “We also expect further optimization in future generations,” promises the company spokesman.

PageWide customers don’t have to worry about having to quickly replace their entire fleet. “HP will continue to sell parts and consumables for five years after the end of the sale to support the installed base of the PageWide A3 and A4 products,” promises Heiko Witzke. Partners are to be assisted in “fulfilling existing obligations with limited deliveries”. In addition, HP wants to support these partners “with the transition to the new HP LaserJet portfolio”.

Partners are disappointed
In the case of partners and distribution, on the other hand, there is a lack of understanding about the decision of the group. One misses a “future market”, it is said from dealers. For years one has tried to advertise business ink technology to customers, and “now you have to tell the opposite again,” annoyed an HP partner.

Another reseller thinks it is “personally a shame” that the PageWide series is being discontinued in the office environment, “especially against the background that the manufacturer is particularly committed to the topic of sustainability, which in my opinion is what the PageWide devices are for have made a not inconsiderable contribution, at least in the German market, “says the boss of a systems house specializing in printing solutions. He is skeptical that the remaining inkjet devices and laser models will fill this gap in the future. “This is unlikely to be easy, especially in the area of ​​energy efficiency,” he predicts.
https://www.channelpartner.de/a/hp-v/rabschiedet-sich-von-pagewide-druckern,3339676

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July 21, 2021 at 1:05 PM