Top 20 Enterprise Laser Printers

By Alison Diana 04/15/2011 Demand for networked color laser printers continues to grow. They offer high-resolution, crisp text, and vivid colors, and are playing a greater role in businesses. But they face challenges: high-performance and lower cost inkjet printers and a weak economy that caused companies to look for ways to cut print costs or allocate those costs to departments. And there's still a big market for black and white printers. Most printers now meet Energy Star standards, which means energy efficiency isn't an effective sales pitch. So vendors have turned to features such as faster first page printing, better management tools, automated two-sided printing, and software that automatically turns the printer off after a pre-determined idle time.

Enterprise Class Laser Printers

Energy efficiency, once a differentiator for vendors, became the norm, as all first- and second-tier vendors appeared to consistently meet Energy Star standards. However, some printer manufacturers include other tools and capabilities--such as speedier time to first page, management tools, automated two-sided printing, and software that automatically turns the printer off after a pre-determined idle time--to further reduce energy usage and costs.

Once out of the price range of smaller departments and enterprise workgroups, even networked color laser printers can now be found throughout a corporation thanks to lower prices of both the hardware and toner. Demand for color models continues to grow, according to several research firms.

"Color laser devices will start to cannibalize monochrome laser printers, but they are not expected to overtake monochrome printers in this forecast period. Color pages will continue to penetrate the office environment as prices decline and users are educated about the benefits of color. However, to become a successful player in this segment, vendors will need to increase their focus on aftermarket costs of color printing," said Akia Ramsay, senior research analyst, printers and peripherals at IDC, in a report.

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