Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
HP Introduces New Technology Dubbed JetIntelligence
HP JetIntelligence Printers
The printing industry is relatively stable in nature. It’s not every day that people in the printing industry are wowed. Moreover, it’s been a long time since any kind of hardware related announcement has made a significant difference to the printing sector.
However, this is exactly what HP did this month by introducing a whole new line of printer models. Printers are not often launched with the type of gusto that HP employed for this line of printers and when we looked under the hood, we weren’t surprised by the fanfare involved.
The reason for this is that HP unveiled its latest technology with these new printers. The new technology is dubbed as JetIntelligence. JetIntelligence is crucial because it marks a critical moment in HP’s technology. They’ve reengineered their entire printing technology to come up with a more efficient and user friendly rendition.
As HP itself says, these new printers and the new technology is geared towards making small and medium businesses more efficient and streamlined. What does JetIntelligence bring to the table?
For one, it makes the new laser printers significantly more environment friendly. These swanky new printers, according to HP’s official line, will consume a whopping 53 percent less energy than the typical laser printers. This is a big deal for businesses that are trying to make their operations more efficient and environment friendly.
Another key element of JetIntelligence based printers from the customers’ perspective is that they are considerably smaller than other laser printers in the market. Since every new product makes such claims, you might think that to be the case with this one too. However, these sleek devices 40 percent smaller than generic laser printers.
This puts them in the same size range as inkjet printers, if not smaller. So, there goes another advantage that inkjet printers had over laser printers. Now, if they could just get laser printers’ cost down to something similar to inkjet printers’, then the world would be a happier place.
Even the boot time of laser printers has been cut down by JetIntelligence. This means that these printers are quicker to wake up and quicker to print, regardless of whether you want single page prints or duplex.
The one news that is expected to be very heart-warming for people who love to print is that JetIntelligence makes HP’s toner cartridges more efficient too. How efficient, you ask? Well, it increases the capacity of toner cartridges by an unbelievable 33 percent. This means that if you spend $1000 per annum on toner cartridge replacement, then you stand to save an amazing $330 in that period.
Essentially, the new technology has upped the ante in virtually every evaluation criteria. In the new JetIntelligence line of laser printers, HP has started with four new models. These include HP Color LaserJet Pro M252, HP Color LaserJet MFP M277, HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M552, and HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553.
The Pro M252 is suitable for smaller workgroups, the Enterprise models are ideal for larger workgroups, and the MFP M277 is perfect for growing teams because it’s the smallest multifunction laser printer in the industry.
While industry experts haven’t been as excited with JetIntelligence and the new line of laser printers from HP, we are because it’s been a very long time since a major breakthrough was made in the printing sector. Moreover, the types of improvements that have been made with the JetIntelligence technology are all targeted at making the life of the consumer easier. As you know, at Inkjet Wholesale, there’s nothing we value more than the comfort of consumers which is why we applaud HP’s innovations.
Increasing Prices of Raw Materials Worry EuPIA
People have always said that the global economy is interconnected. There have also been various examples of this happening over the years but European printing ink manufacturers are now seeing it first-hand.
As per European Printing Inks Association (EuPIA), crucial printing raw materials are becoming more expensive because of fluctuations in the value of the European Euro. In other words, because the Euro is becoming less valuable when compared to the American dollar, its purchasing power has gone down too.
Since the world’s primary trading currency is the American dollar, the Europeans have found that the cost of their raw materials have gone up for them. Over the last year, the American dollar has gained about 15 percent of the European Euro.
Typically, the cost of printing ink is dependent on the prices of oil. However, it seems that the printing raw materials that are getting more expensive for the European printing ink manufacturers are not linked to oil.
EuPIA clearly specified that they’ve seen an increase in many crucial printing raw materials even though the global oil prices have dipped in past one year. However, the dropping global oil prices do soften the blow for European printing ink manufacturers.
The raw materials that have become dearer for the Europeans include nitrocellulose and gum resin. Additionally, according to the EuPIA report, the cost of titanium oxide is also gradually going up because many manufacturers have shut up shop.
As industry capacity for titanium oxide shrinks, the prices are bound to increase because the supply will go down. In terms of pigments, which are also used in printing ink production, EuPIA says that the trend remains the same.
The logic here is that the pigment manufacturing process doesn’t depend on oil prices too much. Instead, pigment manufacturing depends on elements like the cost of specialty chemicals, environmental concerns, and especially the cost of labour in hubs like China and India.
The direct effect of all these cost fluctuations is that the profit margins of European printing ink manufacturers are being squeezed. While not stated clearly, the EuPIA believes that this situation is making life difficult for many printing ink manufacturers on the old continent.
The situation in Australia could be the same as well because the American dollar has made hefty gains against the Australian dollar in the past one year too. Since September, 2014, Australian dollar has dropped in value from 93.8 to 77.4 on March 19, 2015.
It is a considerable drop. This is why it makes us think if printing ink manufacturers or connected businesses are also seeing similar slumps in their profit margins. If this is the case, then the cost of printing ink can be expected to go up in the future as well.
There are certain printing ink manufacturers in Australia (at least 63, the last time we checked) which may be getting affected by the drop in value of the Australian dollar against the American dollar.
However, you don’t have to worry much as an end consumer because of a lot of these spikes in cost will be absorbed by the manufacturers. Moreover, you’ll always have the benefit of Inkjet Wholesale’s astounding low prices!
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