quote:Originally posted by Art Post:quote:Originally posted by txeagle24:
It would seem these products are being released to be part of an MPS strategy or to displace competitive units from the likes of HP, Lexmark and Samsung. Are they being released late compared to Canon's 1700 series, yes, since they're not supposed to be available in the U.S. until December, but I don't think they're destined for failure.
Understood, failure may have been to harsh, but the reality is that there was a chance to have the best of both worlds, seems to me Ricoh opted for the MPS side.
Let's wait to see if these may be the best of both worlds. Comparing Ricoh to Canon, both of them are taking their first crack at monochrome A4 MFPs, so while they are competing against one another, they're primarily competing against perception that existing users of products from HP, Lexmark, Samsung & Xerox. From the TCO perspective, these should still blow HP's M4555 out of the water, at least as long as customers are buying OEM cartridges.
Ricoh's A4 products will be great for Ricoh A3 customers, and Canon's A4 products will be great for Canon's A3 customers. If Ricoh weren't prototypically late with launching their products, we might have a solid window of time here to fight for placements, but with Ricoh lagging behind Canon's launch, the battle for single-unit A4 transactions is going to be more difficult.