ok, just saw LDP pricing on this today and I must admit I am SHOCKED! Shocked that this machine is more expensive than the 240W! SHOCKED that we already have had a difficult time selling against the lower priced KIP and Xerox units. SHOCKED that newer technology should have made the price lower and not higher.
Here we go a reason for my madness!
New w2400 w/print/scan/single roll feeder w/embbedded print/scan MSRP of $18,517
New w2400 w/print/scan/single roll feeder w/ratio controller, Interface and Scan MSRP of $18,144.
old 240w w/print/scan/hd/single roll feeeder w/ratio controller, Interface and Scan MSRP of $17,202!
Now you do the math, $900 more for the upgrade with the ratio controller!
Lets take it a step futher, lets add a the pc to the new w2400 (lets add 1,160) includes setup and we have an MSRP of 19,304, so my customer will have to pay more for the same functionality with the rw controller. What are they getting extra, scan2email (NO), scan2folder(NO), document server (yes, not needed 90% of customers do not use this on the 480w), better halftones (yes), so for $900 more the customer will have better half tones and a document server for a new model??? How does this make us competitve against KIP, OCE and Xerox!
Lets take a look at the embedded w2400 with a list of 18,517, still more than the old 240W when you add the print server ($1,160), old 240w with printer server $18,362. Making the old 240w still less expensive. However customer does now has scan2email, scan2folder, halftones and document server, but is missing ratio plotbase and ration scantools (just about 50% of my customer use the scan tool editor).
Yes, I realize I am looking at cost, however don't 50% of customer make their buying decesion based on cost? What good is extra features if they can't use them.
Wholesale pricing, I do not see anything earth shattering here. Cost for the base w2400 is higher compared to the base cost of the 240w (with hard drive). Someone told me the margins would be greater, well where???? Oh, btw I met with a dealer friend of mine who is a Ricoh Wide Format Dealer only, he told me today, that Ricoh offered to Wide Format Dealers only a discount of the 240w by more than $2,000 for the base unit (what the heck, are full line dealers not entitled, they are full line dealers, should be getting something for that)
If I am wrong, please stop me from ranting and please clear my head on this price issue! All in all I would have expected a lower MSRP that of about $16,000 with the embedded controller. Who the heck is going to upgrade early if they have to pay more? I would have also liked to see a USB printing port, meaning that you can hook a thumb drive in and print from there. Plus no color scanning! Sorry, we'll have a hard time selling these to Engineering firms with it and they will pay a premium for the color scanning kit from KIP.
At this point in time I am very disappointed with the pricing on this new system and seeing how I've seen pricing for the KIPs and Xeroxs in the $12,000 to $14,000 range, please tell me how I am going to make money with this unit and still have to support it?
I going to wait a few days before I post this on my blog, maybe some of you can agree or disagree with my thinking here!
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