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September 24, 2007* – Xerox announced today the release of five new products, two of which—the Phaser 8860 and Phaser 8860MFP ink stick printers—purport to reduce the price of color document printing to that of black-and-white printing. In addition, ink sticks are said to be more environmentally friendly. Xerox is also launching two new WorkCentre products, the 7232 and 7242, for small to medium workgroups and a new multi-function printer, the Phaser6180MFP, which offers fax and LAN fax capabilities. The Phaser 8860 is available now and sells for $2,499, while the 8860MFP will be available on November 12 for $3,999. The WorkCentre 7242 and 7232 will be available November 1, 2007 and January, 2008, at $5,299 and $6,299, respectively, while the 8160MFP is available now for $999.
Xerox’s ink stick technology has been in use in some of their Phaser products for many years now, but these new improvements, five years in the making, promise improved efficiency. Ink yields of 14,000 pages per stick set are now possible with the Phaser 8860 series at costs less than the competition. Black ink sticks are priced at $216 each and color sticks at $72 each, resulting in cost per page of 1.7 cents.
The new Phaser 8860 printers also boast a smaller environmental footprint. These benefits include less packaging (recycled and recyclable; printed with soy-based inks) and no empty cartridges to dispose of, plus the sticks are manufactured using less energy than conventional toner and inkjet cartridges. In addition, the lighter weight products mean lower transportation costs.
The Phaser 8860 is designed for use by businesses producing between 1,000 and 10,000 pages per month. The 8860 features fast print speeds of 30 pages per minute (ppm) in both black and color, an Intel Pentium 750 MHz processor, 256-mb of RAM, a standard 40-gb hard drive, standard network connectivity, and optional wireless capabilities. Color quality is assured with Pantone approved colors. Consumers can save paper and increase output with the duplex version of the 8860, which features a 1-gb hard drive and standard duplexing.
The Phaser 8860MFP features print, copy, scan, fax, and LAN fax capabilities, with copy and scan resolutions up to 600 x 600 dpi. Added features from the base 8860MFP include 512 mb of RAM standard and an Intel Celeron 750 MHz processor. The duplex option features a 50-sheet automatic document feeder.
The Phaser 6180MFP is a compact, affordable laser printer that provides print, copy, scan, fax, and LAN fax, with two-sided output on the D version. Both the D and N versions feature print, copy, and scan resolutions of 600 x 600 dpi, a 400 MHz processor, standard network connectivity, and print speeds of 31 ppm black and 20 ppm color. The 6180MFP/N has 384 mb of RAM, while the 6180MFP/D contains 1 gb. The 6180MFP series utilizes Emulsion Aggregation High Gloss Toner, which Xerox claims is also environmentally friendly.
For higher volume environments, Xerox’s new offerings, the WorkCentre 7232 and 7242 provide fast black-and-white printing and copying of 32 ppm and 40 ppm, respectively. These multi-function printers are designed for "color cautious" businesses with heavy need of black-and-white printing and occasional color documents, with just 10 ppm color output. One-gigabyte standard RAM and a 40-gb hard drive allow for multiple job processing. Scan and fax capabilities are optional. These units also come with monitoring features, which allow limits to be set on color printing, and security features, which require passwords for fax receipt and ID card swipe security.
All five new Xerox products are Energy Star certified.