Oki Data Enters Multifunction Printer Fray

The company's Mount Laurel, N.J.-based Oki Data Americas unit rolled out three new color MFP products: the ES3640e, which prints at up to 36 pages per minute (ppm) in color and 40 ppm in black-and-white; the network-ready ES1624n MFP, targeted at small or midsize workgroups; and the C5510n MFP, which Oki Data is billing as a "communications center" with a desktop footprint. All devices print, copy, scan and fax.

The ES3640e carries a street price of $13,499. The ES1624n runs $2,799, and the C5510n is priced at $1,399.

Oki Data also unveiled two lines of digital LED tabloid color printers. The C9800 series printers, which range in price from $6,889 to $7,189, are targeted at commercial printing shops, the company said. The C9600 series, priced between $3,399 and $4,099, are aimed at workgroups needing solutions for brochures.

"It's an important addition for them," said Andrew Ritschel, president of Electronic Office Systems, a Fairfield, N.J.-based solution provider, whose company partners with Oki Data, Ricoh, Kyocera Mita and others.

Oki Data's new desktop-size unit "is actually going to be revolutionary for the marketplace," Ritschel said. "Realistically, their focus has been on the bigger machine. But the smaller price-point machine and the desktop unit are going to be innovative. [They are] going to hit the marketplace and cause the other manufacturers to scramble and produce something comparable."

Along with the new printers, Oki Data said it was bringing its product line under the OKI Printing Solutions brand. Company executives said the move will help focus attention on Oki Data services, solutions and printers.

With its push into the MFP segment, Oki Data joins a space that includes rivals such as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Lexmark, Samsung, Ricoh and Canon. Companies in the MFP arena have been fighting it out over the past few years as technologies and channels have continued to merge.