A Lexmark 2050 is for Christmas

Lexmark has released a colour inkjet printer onto the retail market.

The Jetprinter 2050 hits the shops on 2 September and Lexmark is hoping this addition to its printer range will prove popular with home users at Christmas.

The company estimates that the retail printer market accounts for 38 per cent of the total printer market, and is aiming to have a 20 per cent share of the retail market by the end 1997. It has also said it will be entering into the non-retail market during Q1 1997.

The 2050 printer is priced at around u280 and comes with a free CD-Rom which allows users to design their own greetings cards, labels and T-shirts.

It will also enable users to work with photo images which have been downloaded from the Internet.

Tony Hall, Lexmark consumer sales manager, said: 'By giving the home user the opportunity to design things they can use and relate to, such as their own cards, we can add real value to our products.'

The Jetprinter 2050 will print at draft speeds of five ppm in black, up to two ppm in colour, four ppm in black and one ppm in colour letter-format. Lexmark is hoping the use of its waterproof black ink in the printer will give it a leading edge in print clarity.

Lexmark is hoping to raise its public profile later this year with a new ad campain. The campaign will use the slogan 'Imagine It, Print It', under a picture of a blue banana. Hall said: 'We're hoping that, if nothing else, it will make people stop and think.'

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