Comprising three monochrome printers and one color, the products are faster, more capable and more affordable than any comparable products currently being offered, the company said.
"Today's launch definitely raises the bar in terms of pricing and performance" said Lexmark Asean general manager Paul Kwa.
The monochrome printers--Optra E312, Optra M412 and Optra T614nl--are priced at RM1,960, RM3,699 and RM6,618 respectively. The Optra C710 color is going for RM8,998.
In US pricing, the Optra M412 costs US$799 or about US$300 less than the comparable HP LaserJet 4050. Both print at 17 pages per minute.
Competing on price points however, was not the strategy adopted by Lexmark, said Kwa. Instead, the company believes its edge over its competitors lies in being a pure-play printing solutions company.
"It's not just the hardware or the pricing. One must also look at the productivity tools, services and support that come with the product to make a whole solution."
In line with this, Lexmark also announced several software management tools that are meant to make it easier and faster for enterprises to install their Optra printers.
The tools are NetPnP v.4.0 for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 environments--automatically installs new devices onto networks, MarkVision for Intranets v5.6--allows administrators to diagnose and solve printer or multifunction issues via the Internet and MarkVision Windows Installer--allows IT staff to deploy software upgrades across the enterprise.
Kwa admitted however that Lexmark has not had much visibility in the local market compared to other players such as HP and Canon.
"This is partly because we are still a fairly young company. But yes, we do need to carry out more marketing activiities. At the same time, we wouldn't want to simply throw in a million ringgit on a marketing blitz. We would rather focus on training our channels to deliver real value."
Based on International Data Corporation (IDC) figures, the overall laser printer market in unit shipments in Malaysia last year, was led by HP (75.3 percent), followed by Canon (10 percent) and Xerox (5.9 percent).
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