Dell is launching eight new black-and-white
printers, including several multifunction models, which target a range
of businesses from large enterprise to small companies to specialized
users in the health care, legal and education fields.The eight new Dell
printers, which are available March 30, represent the next step Dell is
taking in revamping its printer portfolio to better compete with
Hewlett-Packard and Xerox in the enterprise market and against smaller
players, such as Samsung and Brother, in the SMB (small and midsized
business) markets.
In 2008, Dell began revamping its printer
portfolio to better compete against HP. Now, Dell has more than 25
printer models, including black-and-white offerings, color printers and
multifunction machines. The prices range from $119 on the low end to
$3,319 on the high end.

While Dell has expanded its offerings
during the last two years, Donald Heath, a senior product manager in
company’s Printing and Imaging division, said Dell is focused on
offering IT managers a way to save 20 to 30 percent in printing costs.
With the economy still sluggish, Heath said IT managers are looking for a
way to save money in one area and move that cash to a more critical
area, such as data storage and critical infrastructure.

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“With
the downturn in the economy, everyone in IT has to come back to the
drawing board,” said Heath. “Where do we save money? In most IT staffs,
printers probably don’t even make the Top 10. Where we felt like we can
add value as a company is if we can save you 20 to 30 percent on a
product line, especially something that you’re not that interested in,
you can take that same amount of money and go spend it on unified
communications, the new SAN, the line of business applications—all the
stuff that you are worried about and it makes sense.”

For IT
departments, Dell is also looking to expand its line of multifunction
printers to allow IT administrators to consolidate older machines and
other peripherals—fax machines, for example—which can save money, offer
more security and streamline the business.

Dell offers three-year
warranties with its printers, and the product lifecycle ranges from
three to five years. In addition, Dell has built embedded technology
into the framework of many of its printers, especially the ones that
offer touch screens, to meet the needs of specialty markets, such as
health care and education. (With the passage of federal health care
legislation in March, many IT firms are revamping their products to meet
what many believe will be a growing need for health care-specific
products.)

“Several printers that we offer are equipped to handle
EMR [electronic medical record] systems,” said Heath.  

The
eight new Dell systems are designated with either an “n,” which means
the printer offers a built-in network card, or a “d,” which means the
printer can handle double-sided printing. The new offerings include:

   
* The Dell 1130, which handles 19 pages per minute (ppm), and the Dell
1130n, which handles 24 ppm. The Dell 1130 costs $119, while the 1130n
costs $179.

    * The Dell 3333dn, which costs $999 and handles
40 ppm, and the Dell 3335dn, which costs $1,299 and handles 40 ppm. Both
machines allow for print, scan and copy functionality.

    * The
Dell 5230n, which costs $899 and handles 45 ppm, and the Dell 5230dn,
which costs $999 and also handles 45 ppm.

    * The Dell 5530dn,
which handles 55 ppm and costs $1,929.

    * The Dell 5535dn,
which handles 55 ppm and costs $3,319. This machine also offers print,
scan, copy and fax functionality.