Samsung
CLP-500: $699

Not only can the printer pull files directly from the external media for printing (assuming the file structure of the disc matches that necessary for the printer to read) but the printer can also archive to disc straight from the flash cards.
CD/DVD functionality doesn’t stop there, though. The R300M integrates a slot located above the paper output slot in which you slide a tray loaded with your printable disc. Epson needs to tighten this mechanism up a bit as we weren’t able to print to a sample disc until the third attempt (with no idea why the first two didn’t work), but once the printer took the CD, the results were excellent. Printing graphics emerged a little more washed out than on glossy paper, but Epson’s disc printing design utility proved simple and useful for making sure disc print jobs came out perfectly aligned.
And speaking of glossy media, the R300M’s six-color photo output was nothing short of stunning, proving that not even the best, “photorealistic” color laser technology can catch a worthy inkjet—for a fraction of the price. Colors emerged vibrant and true to the original, with no visible shifting and perfect detail clarity. For instance, in our test with the screen grab of the architectural software, JPEG compression squigglies came through just as they appear in the original. Skin tones are remarkable, and we couldn’t believe how well detail was preserved in very light and dark regions.
The R300M supports PRINT Image Matching (P.I.M.), PictBridge, and Exif Print technologies, which should appeal to users who value color accuracy and the convenience of printing directly from a compatible camera. While we couldn’t compare directly to our HP model because of a lack of suitable paper, Epson proved itself across several media types the company sent to us to be an amazing printing solution suitable for every class of user.

HP
Deskjet 450wbt: $350

While not as diminutive as other “mobile” printers, the 450wbt weighs in at 4.6 pounds and measures 13.3 x 3.2 x 6.5 inches with the included rechargeable battery strapped to the back. Equipped with parallel, infrared, USB, CompactFlash, or Bluetooth interfaces, this unit is made to run anywhere and interface with practically everything. The package includes a proprietary parallel cable and Bluetooth CF card, so you’re all set.
Setup on the unit is like most other prints. Simply install the CD software, reboot (because of the Bluetooth hooks), and go.

Brother
MW-140BT Micro Printer

Vertical market resellers, take note: The MW-140BT Micro Printer from Brother may be just the ticket to updating your clients into the era of Bluetooth. This sleek little unit measures only 0.7 inches thick and weighs a mere 10 ounces—small enough to slip in a jacket pocket and not leave a bulge. The 140BT is a thermal printer that uses 50-sheet cartridges of A7 paper, which are slightly larger than your average receipt. In fact, receipts are one of this unit’s primary functions.
“Applications for it include electronic prescriptions and mobile point of sale,” says Brother’s Gary Marsh, director of product development. “We’re able to do a carbon copy function so that we can grab someone’s signature on a receipt. Think proof of delivery. We even have applications where there will be a person on street corners giving out tourist information or coupons to a nearby restaurant. Building inspectors. Electrical inspectors. Field service. The list just keeps going when you think about it.”
The printer is made to connect to a nearby Bluetooth device, such as a notebook or PDA. In truth, this unit’s biggest shortcoming is its limited driver support in third-party platforms. If Brother’s included printing tools for Windows and Pocket PC (Palm software is available separately) meet your needs—and they met all of ours for testing—then you’ll be fine. The 300 dpi output does a fine job on text and logo artwork, although you don’t want to run grayscale images through it. “Because of the uniqueness of the product,” says Marsh, “many people have not thought about applications where printing is involved with PDAs and smart phones. Therefore, we’re working with resellers, VARs, and system integrators and selling through them not just the printer but the supplies that go with it, so there’s a recurring revenue stream that goes with the sale. Our plans are not to bring this to the general market through Staples, Office Max, etc., because there needs to be application software that powers the mobile printing. The architecture for Palm and Pocket PC never imagined printing from them, so I basically need to work with every software vendor to have my printer driver integrated into their program.”

Our cover story in this issue delves into the technical side of today’s printing scene. But now we come to perhaps an even more important aspect of the issue: how to make money selling these products and why one manufacturer stands out from the crowd in its field.

INTERVIEW
Spotlight on: Samsung
Rey Roque, VP of Marketing, and Chanel O’Connor, senior product manager

Even though Samsung is the #2 laser engine manufacturer in the world, the company is still working to gain a foothold in the branded laser market. Our Samsung duo talks about how the company is working to expand its base in the category.

RAM: OK, hit me. How does Samsung help to make more money for resellers pushing your printers?
RR: The printer products take advantage of the overall P3 program from Samsung, the Power Partner program you’ve covered in the past. But we’ve made some recent enhancements that specifically benefit the printer products. One thing is we’ve tried to make programs for different groups of resellers. For resellers calling on the larger piece of the SMB pie, the mids and even enterprises, we came up with what we call the Big Deal bonus program. That’s a tiered program where from as little as 25 units, you get something for the reseller rep and something for the reseller company. A rebate to the company and an incentive to the rep. There’s another tier from 26 to 49, 50 to 99, 100 to 199. The next tier down is what we call the SMB Focus program, and we provide some incentive for as little as five units. Beneath that there’s the generalized SPIFF program paid out through debit cards to resellers in general, whether that’s to SOHO or smaller SMB clients.
The second thing is we have a demo unit program that’s pretty effective. We send a unit for 30 days, and if the reseller wants to buy it, he gets it for 50% off MSRP. If you don’t want it, you just pay shipping to return it. So far, there haven’t been any returns.

RAM: Color laser is heating up to be a huge battleground over the next two years. Why pick a Samsung color over the competition?
CO: As you know, HP and Minolta are our two biggest competitors in the sub-$1,000 category. Just like our 500 series, the 550 will offer great features for the price point, such as a built-in
duplexer, which is normally a $300 to $400 option. You’ll get parallel plus USB 2.0. The output speed is faster than many similarly priced competitors. And perhaps you’ve heard about our NO NOIS engine. That’s our marketing terminology to describe the static engine that’s unique to Samsung. It’s built to have fewer moving parts, so it’s more reliable and steady. On top of all that, we’re offering one year of on-site warranty. That’s a huge value for customers. Normally, one year of on-site will cost a customer $200 to $300. So the overall package is very special compared to the competition.

RAM: Are there any competitive advantages with your consumables?
CO: On our toner capacities, if you compare us to the competition, our black toner is 7,000 pages at 5% coverage whereas our competition is offering about 5,000 pages at 5% coverage. Then on the CMY toners, ours is about 5,000 pages while the competition is about 4,500. So looking at price per page, we’re very competitive.

RAM: Let’s touch on the all-in-one category. Samsung takes a different tack here by only offering laser MFPs. Is this product type ready for prime time yet?
CO: If you look at the overall output market, there are a couple of hot spots. One is the color laser. The other is the multifunction printer. Before, the big product type for the SOHO market was inkjet multifunction, but now you’re seeing laser models coming out and the price points going down. I think it’s a very good product for the channel and the SMB market. Being able to do color printing, faxing, scanning, and copying at a $399 or $499 price point is very attractive. I read an IDC study recently that said the SMB market is really moving to multifunction because if you’re a startup, you want to save money on your equipment. But even more established businesses are looking at multifunction because of both space and cost savings. With these price points, they can now buy multiple units to place around the office rather than have one big copier and one big printer to be shared by big groups.

INTERVIEW
Spotlight on: KONICA MINOLTA
Mitch Tousinau, senior manager, channel marketing, and Gary Davidson, senior training specialist.

We confess, Konica Minolta was our pleasant surprise for this issue. Despite a long career in the color laser field, the brand is still comparatively little known. But sometimes the best partners are the underdogs with the most to prove. As Tousinau and Davidson illustrate, this looks to be one of those times.

RAM: What makes Konica Minolta laser printers different from everybody else’s?
MT: Two things. One is the actual toner itself. It is a chemically grown toner, or a polymer toner. There is no oil in the system. You basically have your four toners, the OPC, and the waste toner collector. That’s it for consumable pieces, which is one reason the price is down. The polymer toner gives you very consistent sized and shaped toner particles. They don’t have jagged edges, so you have much better control over the toner itself, and you can produce very fine lines and very smooth gradient transitions.
GD: Now, you combine the quality of that toner with what we’re capable of doing inside the controller with the laser and you get a level of resolution that hasn’t been seen up to this point on a desktop laser. It certainly hasn’t been seen in a color laser at $1,000. For all practical purposes, it’s photographic quality out of a desktop laser.

RAM: Why is Konica Minolta a good play for resellers?
MT: We allow them the opportunity to make a profit selling our products, as opposed to probably the top-selling product in the market today, where there’s very little margin for the reseller. We offer a good quality product with more features for less
money. It’s reliable so resellers don’t have service issues on
the back end. We think the principle and the sales rep has the ability to make more money with our program than most if not all other programs out there.

RAM: Are there any competitive advantages with your consumables?
GD: One comment I get a lot is “I didn’t know Minolta made printers.” or “I hadn’t heard of Konica in this market before.” Something like that. Our brand name may not be as widely known as some of our competitors, but we still offer some of if not the most affordable printer models in their categories. That alone creates a certain amount of traffic into the reseller carrying those. Combine that with the ability of the reseller to make very good margins on these low-priced printers, and it’s a win-win for everybody.

RAM: What kind of margin can resellers expect to make on your printers?
GD: Performing at the highest levels, selling options and accessories—not just selling the box—they can make up to 24 percent. Now, there’s not as much margin with the lower-end stuff, like the 2300W that also gets carried through retail and is less applicable to VARs. But like the 2350 and the higher models in the line where there is special value that can be added, people do make those margins.

RAM: And at the low end?
MT: I’m thinking about eight percent, and that’s with no options or accessories.

RAM: What are the key details of your reseller program? Show me the money.
MT: Typically, we offer a 3% front end return for buying the product, and then by meeting certain sales goals, they are able to achieve up to an additional 8% incentive. We alluded to that before when talking about that 24% margin figure. And that’s on everything that we sell except the consumables.

RAM: Any other areas you folks stand out in?
MT: Marketing support. I know companies use that as a catch-all phrase for everything they do, but one of the areas where we really shine is our account execs out in the field that call on resellers face-to-face. You don’t get that from everybody, or you don’t get that at all levels of resale commitment from everybody. We have an internal staff where individuals are assigned geographically, so when a reseller calls they get the same individual time after time. We think that makes a big difference. You get to know the person, and that makes a big difference in the relationship.

The Last Word