Why printers matter

Printers are often seen as the poor relations of the PC, and are quite possibly the least sexy part of an industry already chronically short of sex appeal.

Even some vendors keep their distance: Hewlett-Packard (HP), for example, gets very cross whenever it's referred to as 'the printer company'. So why should we care?

The primary reason is money. Printers make up a large percentage of the total cost of running any office. And it's not so much about the original purchase price: consumables, be they paper or toner cartridges, are expensive.

According to a recent survey from the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Berkeley University, the average US office worker gets through 10,000 sheets of paper every year. The cost of printing depends on the machine you are using, but it can be as much as ten times more than the purchase price of the actual paper.

Phil Murphy, MD of Kyocera, summed up the problem in a recent interview in Silicon.com's Document Management Channel. He said the UK printer market (a definition which includes the people who buy them) "lacks focus, lacks interest and lacks expertise". He added that too many people fail to make informed printer decisions and suffer from a "myopic tendency - just going for the market leader".

This also lets many manufacturers make a fortune from consumables. The suspicion that vendors are ripping off consumers who don't take the time or trouble to research printers properly was raised again earlier this month. Ron Jones, CEO of inkjet cartridge manufacturer, Colossal Graphics, filed a lawsuit against HP, claiming it was monopolising the market (other vendors' cartridges don't work with HP printers) and charging exorbitant prices for its cartridges.

Jones is claiming that HP makes 67 per cent profit on every cartridge it sells. A phone call to Colossal links to an answering machine where a mournful Jones claims HP drove him out of business, despite owing him $6.4m from a previous lawsuit. (Jones has been in dispute with the printer giant since August 1997, when he brought a total of 13 charges against the company.)

Jones' other beef with HP is environmental. He claims it has made over a billion cartridges for inkjet printers -all of them destined for landfill. Kyocera's Murphy agrees that printer policies shouldn't just focus on cost: a traditional cartridge contains toner, drum, developer system and cleaning system. As a result, it's all but impossible to recycle. Kyocera has made a name for itself by producing environmentally friendly products, but is constantly frustrated by users' reluctance to look long and hard at printer policies.

So where does this leave the business? The paperless office is clearly a couple of millennia away and we need a way to control costs before then. One suggestion is putting printer costs nearer the centre of IT strategy. Many companies have no policy on printer use, while the rest of IT use is highly regulated.

Another solution is to follow the photocopier industry by moving to a business model based on leasing. By paying per month, businesses would be protected from hidden costs. Manufacturers would be encouraged to improve the environmental impact of their machines because they are liable for the results. Firms would suddenly be in a position to work out just how much of their IT budget is being spent on printing - and in the process, might just do something to help the environment.

For more information, see http://eetd.lbl.gov/paper/ or http://www.hp-vs-the-people.com