IBM's Printers Go Wireless

IBM introduced Tuesday what it called a "plug-and-print" wireless LAN adapter to support enterprise network printing on high-volume machines.

Mark Andrews, vice president of worldwide marketing for IBM printing systems, said the new Wi-Fi printing adapter shows how the IBM printer product line offers enterprise users wider choices than the line of printers introduced Tuesday by Dell Computer.

Entry-Level Options?

Andrews dismissed Dell's printers as "entry-level" models focused on consumers and the low end of the enterprise market. IBM, which buys its printers from a number of vendors--including Hitachi and Ricoh, both based in Tokyo--offers an entry-level enterprise model priced at $639 with a maximum output of 45 pages per minute; that's slighty more than double the 22 ppm of the Dell workgroup printers manufactured by Lexmark International in Lexington, Kentucky.

Those printers have a base price of $499.

But as with PCs, Andrews said, the hardware cost of an enterprise printer is only a small part of the overall cost, and maintaining larger, networked machines is more cost-effective than dealing with a series of smaller machines scattered about various offices.

Paul Preo, IBM's group line manager for workgroup printers, said the new Wi-Fi printer adapter, which is priced at $212, will make it easier for enterprises to hook up users to a networked printer. He said the Wi-Fi adapter will help companies that are "starved" for Ethernet ports connect network devices, and will be especially helpful for organizations located in environments where installing wired network printer connections is difficult.

Dell's Printer Plans

Greg Davis, director of sales and marketing for the Dell printer group, declined to say whether his company plans to introduce wireless printers. But he did say that Dell intends to expand its printer product line later this year.

While some analysts, such as Peter Kastner at Boston-based Aberdeen Group, said that they believe Dell can become "a material player" in a printer market dominated by rival Hewlett-Packard, others have their doubts.

Peter Grant, an analyst at Gartner Dataquest in Stamford, Connecticut, said that he sees Dell as a late entry into a market "driven by research and development, intellectual property [patents], and installed base."

HP has more than 175 million printers installed worldwide, he said. It will be years before Dell makes any inroads on HP's position. "If Dell is going to be a long-term player in the printing and imaging market, they need to acquire a printer vendor with the IP [intellectual property] that enables them to control production and pricing," he said.