HP: Epson, Canon a year behind us

According to Hamish Alexander, Country Manager, Imaging & Printing Group, HP New Zealand, the firm’s printing rivals are at least a year behind HP.

“Our rivals don’t have the HP infrastructure; they’d have to build it,” he said when demonstrating the company’s recently launched new ePrint range, specifically naming both Epson and Canon.

Despite the rise and easy availability of smartphones, which takes away some of the need for printing things like maps and directions, Alexander said that printing is actually still growing in New Zealand.

“16% more people are printing since the ePrint range was launched,” he stated.

But the biggest issue that business and consumers have struggled with since the advent of the printer – ink costs – don;t look like going away anytime soon.

“We’ve no update on when the price of ink might go down,” Alexander said.