Xerox Proclaims 'Color Copies for the Same Price as Black and White' -- What This Means for Us

Xerox has recently unveiled their Phaser 8860 and 8860MFP printers. With these new products, Xerox claims that you can now "add color to every document you produce and no longer worry about how much it costs."

What does this mean for Docucopies.com, or for your color copying and digital printing company?

Well, we're not too worried about it. While Xerox claims their machines are economical (to the point where color and black and white cost virtually the same), it's clear to see that these copy-printers are intended for consumers, not providers. These are aimed at small- to medium-sized office work groups whose needs are more or less restricted to business meetings, reports, charts, etc. They are clearly NOT intended for large-scale copying companies. This is evidenced by the price as well as it's multi-functionality (e.g. scanning, faxing).

So if you're an executive of a color copying or printing company, you can stop shaking in your boots. This product is not going to put you out of business. You may lose some customers from the small- to medium-sized work group demographics, but your big expensive jobs will keep coming in, because this machine just isn't designed for them.

Furthermore, an article by Nanette Byrnes says, "Xerox's new machine makes a color copy at five cents, about half of what printing it on today's machines costs." At first glance, you may be thinking, "Five cents, hey, isn't that the same price Docucopies offers?"

Yes and no. The five cents per color copy that this machine offers does not factor in the maintenance and repairs that the owner will almost certainly suffer over the course of the machine's life. At Docucopies, that's already figured in--when we say five cents a copy, we mean it. Most companies do not want to worry about the constant upkeep involved in having their own machines, and that's why they will keep coming to us.

The Xerox 8860MFP is very new, and there doesn't appear to be much for customer reviews. If any of our readers have an experience with this machine they'd like to share, please post.

Check out our related blog on the differences between printing with ink, printing with toner, and printing with what Xerox calls "solid ink" (which they claim to offer exclusively).


Cheap, High-Quality Color Copies