With the launch of its new label/POS printer line, OKI Data Canada of Mississauga, Ont. now believes it can offer any kind of printing solution to the market place.
Long known for keeping dot matrix printing alive in the market place when every other manufacturer turned its back on the so called dead technology, OKI boasts to having a portfolio that includes: label, POS, SIDM, colour and mono laser/LED and MFP. The company can also custom build printer solutions for VARs with specific solution needs as well as managed print service-ready colour MFP.
The only printer solution it does not have is solid ink printing. However, OKI counters it with thermal, RFID and portable printing technologies.
Mario Pallotta, the newly named national sales director for OKI Data Canada, said the company is not moving away from dot matrix or any other kind of printing. “It’s not going away and we still dominate that market. It’s not growing, nor is it decreasing. Dot matrix is a flat market,” Pallotta said.
The new label and POS printers will be available through Synnex Canada and will be backed by an overnight exchange warranty.
The strategy behind the release of label and POS printers based on the trend of businesses migrating from SIDM technology and to meeting the needs of any size customer in vertical markets such as retail, manufacturing, transportation, education, public sector, finance, real estate, life sciences and professional services.
According to Pallotta, OKI has a long legacy of developing printing solutions for barcodes, but market-place has move to two-dimensional barcode printing and dot matrix technology is unable to print 2-D barcodes.
Auto Zone, a car parts retailer and repair shop with multiple locations in Canada and the U.S., would print receipts for 37 cent sales. Nick Ciarlante, senior marketing manager, Mono/SIDM/specialty products for OKI Data Americas, based in Mount Laurel, N.J. said that this situation does not make sense for a company such as Auto Zone to print because it’s too costly.
A thermal paper receipt would be a better, cheaper solution, he added.
“We are the leaders in dot matrix printing, but as the market changes we change to meet customer needs and that is why we are in the label and point of sale printing market,” he said.
Ciarlante also said that the label printing market is a growth opportunity in Canada and the U.S. Currently, it’s a $1 billion market just in hardware. Canada, he estimates, represents six per cent of the market and it’s growing. The forecast for this market is close to six per cent growth through out the next four years.