HP's Mopier sets the pace in copier market

Mopier will change the face of photocopying with functions thatenable printing at lightning speeds

Hewlett Packard is predicting the end of the photocopier market after it released a printer designed to replace many of the functions of the standard photocopier.

The machine, which is called a Mopier because of its ability to produce multiple prints, is based on HP's Laserjet 5Si printer range. It can staple and sort printed documents into job-sets in the same way that many photocopiers can.

An HP representative in the UK said the Mopier is a forerunner to a family of machines that will also handle the full range of scanning and printing facilities. 'This is a cost-effective and useful alternative to the traditional printing press. The Mopier represents an excellent opportunity for our channel to eat into the traditional photocopier product set.'

He said the Mopier would replace the need for photocopiers in offices.

'This device can be put anywhere on a network. It has 96ppm capacity and will give everyone access to the whole document handling process.

The photocopier will not die over night, but it will in time. We already estimate that more documents are produced on laser printers than on office photocopiers.'

Copier giants Canon and Xerox were unavailable for comment at press time.

Earlier this year, HP came under fire from rival printer vendor Kyocera for claiming laser printers had much lower operating costs than photocopiers (PC Dealer, 29 May).

HP had said that employing staff to do photocopying was an expensive luxury and that time was wasted in walking to and from the copier. At the time, Phil Murphy, Kyocera general manager, said: 'One wonders if HP has factored in the cost of walking to a stationery cupboard and taking out a new cartridge for the printer every eight hours.'