Wiresherpa

Edgeline Printers Not for Sale

Sep 7, 2007 News

HP’s nearly perfect business printing technology, Edgeline, is regarded as a hot product in terms of speed and reasonable cost by HP and its sourcing partners. This printer will not go on sale in stores near you or in any online outlet. HP has strategically decided that the Edgeline printers would be available to businesses only on lease, directly or through channel partners.

We had earlier visited the technology behind the Edgeline printers: Any inkjet printer has two basic motions for its operation. The first movement involves pushing the paper through the printer and the second inculcates movement of the printhead across the page to cover the entire width. This dual movement slows down the printing process considerably. Getting rid of one of the movements on an inkjet printer will provide significantly faster prints. The printhead movement can be stalled by building a printerhead that is as big as the width of the paper. That way, the printhead doesn’t have to move; only the paper does. This is the technology behind Edgeline technology.

Edgeline printers are known to print fast and there is a significant amount of cost saved as well. HP wants to latch on to these great features by charging businesses for every page they print. The fine print in agreement would vary from customer to customer, depending upon their needs.

HP has identified a few channel partners around the globe who have signed a contract to mediate between businesses and HP. It would be interesting to see if the big corporate would actually jump on the bandwagon of leasing printers for their bulky printing jobs.