MULTIFUNCTIONAL

It prints, it scans, it copies, it faxes, it staples, it folds, it takes out the garbage and it washes the car. Well maybe not all that, but multifunctional is certainly in.

This Christmas Season there is no denying that technological gadgetry is leading the way as the most sought after gifts, and this seems to be most evident in multifunctional machines, especially printers. Multifunctional printers are not new to the scene, but with the recent technology price drops and new advancements these devices are certainly a new breed.

The first multifunctional machine I ever worked with was the Lexmark Medley. When the Medley was released on April 7th, 1995 I was a newly wed working as a wholesale rep. in Lexington, KY responsible for moving Lexmark printers to small retailers across Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio. There I was selling what I still believe to be the best overall printers of the time and I was lucky enough to be selling the market's first printer-fax-copier-scanner combination product with color printing capability.

Lexmark Medley

Built in Lexington, the Medley was Lexmark’s first attempt into the multifunctional market, but this was not a trend to be repeated for quite some time. By industry standards the Medley flopped and I don’t really know the exact reason. Maybe it was the $899.00 price tag, but remember a fully loaded Pentium 75MHz PC sold for over $2500.00 back then. Or maybe it was the 300dpi (dots per inch) resolution because even I already had a 720dpi Epson Stylus Color Printer. Whatever the reason the Medley line was dismantled and the product line canceled in a little under a year. To my knowledge Lexmark did not release another multifunctional inkjet until the Z82 came out to moderate success in Oct. of 2000.

My picks of this year’s multifunctional printer offerings consist of the Lexmark X75 and the Canon MultiPASS F20.

TechTalk
produced and distributed by DataStar Productions
written by Chad Hembree