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The Case For Ink-Jet Color Imaging

February 17, 2010 - For many years, ink-jet imaging has tended to take a back seat to laser imaging.  Just start with the fact that "laser" tends to sound so much more impressive than seemingly mundane ink—something that's been with us for a long, long time (scientists trace it back to 12th century BC, when the Chinese first began manufacturing and using ink). 

However, right now may be the perfect opportunity for ink-jet imaging, thanks to current economic conditions.  While larger companies continue to hold back on IT purchasing, we’re seeing small business and consumers begin to take the first steps in purchasing.  For instance, according to Karen Mills, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses may actually be among the first to lead the recovery, “We do know that the growth in the economy is going to come from small business." 

Wirth Consulting believes ink-jet vendors and ink-jet products are perfectly positioned to appeal to these small business.  Here are some of their advantages:

• Because ink-jet vendors' customers traditionally include both small-/home-office (SOHO) users, and consumers, most have taken great pains to ensure that even the most technically unenlightened among us can install these systems very easily.  Wirth Consulting has extensively tested many ink-jet systems, and found that setting up hardware, connecting to the network (either via wired or wireless), and installing software is easier than ever.
• The same thing applies to ease of use.  Ink-jet vendors have had go out of their way to make sure that their client software is easy to use because their users can't typically rely on internal IT help, and many end-users are novices.  Second, we're now seeing color ink-jet AiOs under $500 with touch screens.  As evaluated by Wirth Consulting, these ink-jet touch screens more than hold their own against more expensive laser systems' touch screens, and make configuring job settings (including entering e-mail addresses for scan-to-e-mail) easier than ever. 
• Ink-jets really shine when printing color photographs, and for producing archival prints, something laser systems can't match. 
• When it comes to power consumption, ink-jets also win hands down; they consume as little as one-tenth the power consumption of their laser counterparts.  We don't expect energy costs to go down anytime soon, and low energy consumption is a key selling for ink-jet imaging.  
• Ink-jets also boast a much smaller footprint than their laser counterparts.  As I write this, I sit next to a color laser printer and a color ink-jet All-in-One.  Even with an automatic document feeder, the All-in-One is half as tall as the laser printer, and frankly, I've never noticed a real appreciable difference in print speed .  (Moreover, Wirth Consulting testing has also found that First Page Out Time [FPOT] for ink-jet systems tends to be faster than laser systems' FPOTs, as ink-jet systems require little warm-up time.)  Maybe you don't consider footprint that big of a deal, but consider that the cost of real estate is a significant expense when running a business.  Ink-jet systems also weigh less than their laser counterparts, so that they can be installed on just about any surface.  Laser systems are much heavier, and may required desktop space or dedicated stand. 

On the other hand, ink-jet systems' disadvantages tend to be IT-related--for instance, most lack LDAP support for scan to e-mail.

Let's first compare two color All-in-Ones on specifications alone, the laser-based Xerox Phaser 6128MFP and ink-jet based Hewlett-Packard Officejet 8500 Premier.  Then we'll compare operating costs.

Following are each device's competitive advantages:

• Xerox Phaser 6128MFP - Higher maximum monthly duty cycle and recommended monthly volume; LAN fax; rated print speed is 1 ppm faster in both black and color modes than the Officejet 8500.
• Hewlett-Packard Officejet 8500 Premier - Lower purchase price; scan and fax in color; standard wireless connectivity; lower power consumption; smaller footprint; automatic document feeder has higher capacity; automatic duplexing; lower cost per page; standard touch screen.

Actual Operating Costs

Now let's look at actual operating costs, which the chart below summarizes.  Operating costs are based on:  an annual print volume of 9,000 pages (6,000 pages of black output and 3,000 pages of color output); an average energy cost of 12 cents per kilowatt hour; annual retail lease-space cost of $13 per square foot; and vendor-stated device list price, rated print speed, device footprint, power consumption, and consumables' yields and pricing.   

*Includes device purchase price, as well as energy consumption, space cost, and consumable's cost to produce 9,000 prints in one year.

 We can see that with the Offiejet 8500 versus the Phaser 6128MFP, the user saves the following at an annual 9,000-page print volume:

• $341.81 in energy costs.
• $46.80 in space costs.
• $372.00 in consumables' costs.

These costs are for a single unit deployed in a small office.  What about a company with many small offices, such as a real-estate company, with, perhaps 100 satellite offices?  You're obviously not going to deploy an office MFP costing thousands of dollars in each office--a low-volume MFP makes more sense.  Based on our 9,000-page annual print volume: 

 *Includes device purchase price, as well as energy consumption, space cost, and consumable's cost to produce 9,000 prints in one year.

Enterprise Savings

Or, suppose you're a large company with many small offices spread around the world--for instance, a world-famous coffee-shop company such as Starbucks--which operates approximately 16,000 coffee shops around the world.  Each coffee shop has low-volume imaging needs.  Based on our 9,000-page annual print volume: 

  *Includes device purchase price, as well as energy consumption, space cost, and consumable's cost to produce 9,000 prints in one year.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that an ink-jet device such as the Officejet 8500 Premier is far cheaper to own and operate than a comparable laser-based system.  (We'd also like to point out that you can also claim brownie points for being more green.)  Moreover, the days of cheap energy are most likely over, so investing in lower power-consumption systems makes more sense than ever. 

At this time, ink-jet systems are limited to the SOHO and SMB market segments and to high-end production systems (there's Xerox's ColorQube of course, but the ColorQube uses heated solid-ink technology, which is different than ink-jet imaging).  We believe that in the future, we may see ink-jet penetrating the mid-volume workgroup space, as we believe its inherent lower build/maintenance costs, and lower energy-consumption makes a compelling cause for its adoption.

Copyright 2010 Wirth Consulting

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