Xerox accelerates colour growth

Calling colour “a strategic competitive advantage no enterprise should be without”, Anne M. Mulcahy, chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation, has unveiled the latest developments in the company’s burgeoning colour business, including the first-ever office multifunction system based on patented Xerox solid ink technology.

With the number of colour pages in the industry increasing 20 percent per year, Xerox has boosted its colour revenue at a similar rate. Now the company is preparing to direct an even larger slice of the 3 trillion pages printed annually towards colour. Despite strong growth, only 3 percent of the total pages produced in businesses today are produced on colour devices.

Speaking before customers, partners and multinational press at an event on 30^th March in San Francisco, Mulcahy urged business leaders to get on board. “Colour is no longer a ‘nice to have,’” she said. “It’s a smarter, more effective way to communicate and add value to information. As of today, colour is easier, more accessible and affordable for more businesses than ever before”.

Over the past four years Xerox has completed what Mulcahy called “the first phase of a ‘Colour Everywhere’ strategy” that included the launch of a new colour solid ink platform for the office and Xerox’s breakthrough iGen3 Digital Production Press and DocuColour platforms for the high-end production printing market.

“Now we are embarking on phase two of that strategy, extending the cost, quality and environmental advantages of solid ink to the multifunction space” she said.

A key part of Xerox’s colour strategy revolves around its solid ink technology, protected with more than 100 current and pending patents and designed to generate billions of colour pages and revenue over the balance of the decade. Solid ink technology uses solid, polymer-based ink instead of powdered toner. The imaging process works in a similar way to an offset press but is designed for everyday office use.

Starting at $2,999 and printing at 24 pages per minute in colour and black-and-white, the Xerox WorkCentre C2424 colour multifunction system announced at the event is said to be 30–60 percent more affordable and twice as fast as leading comparable products in its class. In addition to being the industry’s first solid ink multifunction product, it is the first Xerox colour MFP to be broadly distributed through value-added resellers, helping Xerox reach more small and medium-sized businesses as well as large companies.

In addition to this product and the recent introduction of the faster and more powerful Xerox iGen3 110 Digital Production Press, Xerox has announced enhancements to its DocuColour 12 colour copier/printer – its best-selling colour MFP to date with over 60,000 units shipped.

During the announcement event, panels of colour experts and customers cited ways in which colour documents are helping businesses. Representatives from education, design and the arts cited ways in which new digital colour technologies are adding value to everything from classroom textbooks, direct-mail pieces, tax forms and statements.