Laser Printers: Marketing And Introduction As A Case Of Cooperation Across Cultures And Management Styles

Although Hewlett Packard along with Canon in best known for the development and popularization of the now common inkjet style of printing is was Hewlett Packard so to speak who "broke the dam".

The cultures of both Canon and Hewlett Packard were predominantly "Engineer Companies".

Hence the personalities at both ends were able to "speak the other's language "even though there may have been cultural and language barriers of sorts.

As well the two groups - Canon and HP were able to jointly corroborate on the development of the ubiquitous ink cartridge printers in the same manner even though in a business sense they it may have been strictly considered competitors ..

There were considerable technical and practical difficulties in the developments of both product streams.

As engineers the two sides saw the development as a puzzle to solved, a project to finish to satisfaction rather than two competitors.

It is an interesting historical footnote that the HP Inkjet product development was almost repeatedly killed due to antithesis from an engineer's point of view that that a product (the inkjet cartridges) should be made only to be thrown out in the trash.

At the time Dot Matrix Printers with a "Daisy Wheel", which were much like the typewriters of the day with an ink ribbon which rolled past the paper to replenish itself, were the standard and norm? As well color inkjet printers although available somewhat in different less standardized, less advanced forms were not widely used.

People in offices liked the new LaserJet printers. They were tired of waiting around for slow, noisy Dot Matrix printing of their documents. Laser printing was quick, silent and indeed "Magic".

The first LaserJet's were somewhat expensive at approximately $ 4000 a machine.
However it must be remembered that this was not out of line with the cost of a computer at the time.

The LaserJet's were often connected to a number of computers through early Local Area Networks (LANS). The printer was thus shared among a number of computers and the objections of cost in both marketing and purchasing departments to the perceived value of the early laser printers

As noted employees loved the speed and management as well as the ever controlling executive secretaries loved the peace and quiet. Indeed it was both very impressive and intimidating site to both visitors and competitors that such a quiet work area could both so productive and deadly.

Along the way printer sharing devices were commercially introduced to present low cost and easily set up (Non LAN) answers to the high cost of laser printing.

These printer sharing devices were often so advanced in their features and ease of use in their print queuing and print spooling capacities that they put the mainframe computer systems of the day to shame.

Because of the acceptance of this product line both 3rd party software and hardware support was provided by the progressive vendors of the time.

Those by and large are the basis of the features we take for granted today both in terms of Word Processing / office software programs be they WordPerfect of Microsoft Office or the widespread use of fonts and supportive device drivers for graphics in the Windows , Macintosh operating systems among others.

At an earlier point the sign that you war e dealing with a major corporation or enterprise was that the document your received was printed with the distinctive font of the IBM Electric Typewriter ( then $ 3,000 or so the price of a car).

That standard now became the print and feel of the then special Laser printers.

Since the corporate environment is a very lucrative as well as trend setting focuses of the computer industry it was not long before "LaserJet Clones "became available on the marketplace.

Luckily this spurred on both product development, and ultimately increased market penetration, product support and reduced costs.

Thus the die was set for the major acceptance of Laser printers as " The Standard " of Business document presentation and image.


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