QMS introduces world's first color laser printer priced under $5,000; company discusses business affects of breakthrough introduction.MOBILE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 1995--QMS Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AQM AQM Active Queue Management AQM Air Quality Management AQM Acquisition Management AQM Assistant Quartermaster (Civil War) AQM Additive Quark Model AQM Analog Quadrature Modulator AQM Acenaphthenequinone Monoxime ) announced earlier today its new QMS (1) (Minolta-QMS, Inc., Mobile, AL) A manufacturer of laser printers founded in 1977 by Jim Busby. Initially involved with controllers for printing bar codes and labels, it entered the laser printer business in the mid-1980s and set numerous records. magicolor LX color laser print system. The 12MB RAM model provides 600x600 dots-per-inch (dpi) print resolution in black-and-white (b&w) and 300x300 dpi in color and is reference priced at $4,999 in the U.S. The 24MB RAM model provides 600x600 dpi b&w/600x600 dpi color and is reference priced at $5,699 in the U.S. Both model sprint at 12 pages-per-minute (ppm) in b&w and 3 to 6 ppm in color. Previously, comparable prices of similar type color Type color is a typographic term referring to the weight or boldness (or lack of boldness) of a font. It is such called because type color affects the amount of black on the page. "Black" fonts are bold and heavy. laser print systems ranged from about $8,000 to nearly $10,000. A color copier option for the QMS magicolor LX systems will be available this summer. A flat-bed desktop scanner for copier input is utilized to produce multiple copies of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color originals at up to 3 copies-per-minute. The copier option is attached to the printer through the standard SCSI interface SCSI interface - SCSI adaptor . James L. Busby, QMS president and chief executive officer, commented, "We are very excited about breaking through the $5,000 price barrier. Since our market introduction of the world's first desktop color laser printer A laser printer that prints in color using four toner cartridges (CMYK) of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The colors are applied one at a time to the drum and are then adhered to the paper. See printer. in 1993, color laser printers have been our fastest growing product line. We anticipate the growth rate of color laser printer sales to quickly accelerate given the significantly lower prices. "This action should affect our overall business in several ways. Our color laser printer sales are anticipated to significantly increase and should help increase total sales. In addition, the very likely prospect of increasing our high-margin consumable and service revenues, which act as a profitable annuity stream as our installed base of color laser printers increase, was an important factor in our decision to reduce the price on our color laser printers to $4,999 and aggressively seek to expand the growing color laser market. "Recently, we have been able to successfully negotiate improved prices on our color laser print engines due to the anticipated increase in future sales. Gross margins, however, are likely to decline in the current quarter and third quarter due to the lower prices of our color laser printer line. The improved purchasing power Purchasing Power 1. The value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy. Purchasing power is important because, all else being equal, inflation decreases the amount of goods or services you'd be able to purchase. 2. we are likely to realize on color laser print engines, together with improved total sales and increased high margin consumables and service, will partially offset the near term reduced profitability due to the price reduction. While results in the second and third quarters are likely to be negatively affected by the price reduction, improvements due to higher unit and consumables sales should result in improving profitability by the fourth quarter and beyond. "Operating expenses Operating expenses The amount paid for asset maintenance or the cost of doing business, excluding depreciation. Earnings are distributed after operating expenses are deducted. may increase in the current quarter due to increased expenses associated with the new product rollout. At the same time, we are actively reviewing the business to find improved efficiencies and other methods to reduce our cost structure." Busby concluded, "We continue to view the prospects in our strategic markets, color laser and higher-end network printing, very positively and as the two fastest growing segments of the printer industry. Introducing the world's first color laser printer priced below $5,000 is consistent with our efforts to increase our leadership in the growing color laser printer market." -0- Note to editors: QMS is a leading producer of print systems and integrated office systems with products sold through direct, reseller and distributors in 68 countries. The company's print systems fit seamlessly into a wide variety of computer networks and include color and monochrome laser and color thermal transfer See thermal wax transfer printer and direct thermal printer. printers. QMS and the QMS logo are registered trademarks of QMS, Inc. CONTACT: QMS, Inc., Mobile Michael A. Haase, 334/633-4300 |
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