Lumina targets fed market with multifunction device
Lumina Office Products has introduced the Lumina 2000, a multifunction device that incorporates a scanner, fax machine and copier. Lumina's product differs from most multifunction peripherals in that it lacks a printer. Lumina targets the large installed base of potential customers who already have
Lumina Office Products has introduced the Lumina 2000, a multifunction device that incorporates a scanner, fax machine and copier.
Lumina's product differs from most multifunction peripherals in that it lacks a printer. Lumina targets the large installed base of potential customers who already have a laser printer. The company contends that laser printers provide functions better suited to customer needs than the ink-jet printers typically built into multifunction devices.
"The printer you get with peripherals is not the printer you want," said Barbara Nelson, vice president of marketing for Lumina.
Leaving the printer out of the Lumina 2000 has the added benefit of a lower price.
"The great thing about it is the low cost," said Roman Ferrer, team leader, peripherals marketing for Government Technology Services Inc.
GTSI will offer the Lumina 2000 on its General Services Administration Schedule 58 as soon as it is awarded by GSA.
Until then the schedule price will not be known, but Lumina estimates the entry-level model 2096 will cost $399 on the street. That product includes 256K of RAM, which is enough memory to store eight pages, and uses a 9,600 bit/sec modem. The model 2144 uses a 14.4 kilobit/sec modem and holds 60 pages in its 1M memory. Both versions can be upgraded to hold as many as 240 pages.
The federal market is ripe for the Lumina 2000 because it has bought so many laser printers already. "We sell loads and loads of Hewlett-Packard [Co.] laser printers," Ferrer said.
"This [printerless] approach has always appealed to me," said Ken Camarro, president of Camarro Research, Fairfield, Conn.
Some other devices, such as scanners, provide some of the same functions by letting the user scan documents into the computer and then print or fax them.
That can be time-consuming, and it forces users to learn how to use different equipment. The Lumina looks and works just like a fax machine; it has buttons and a display on the top for dialing.
It also works like a copier and provides controls for shrinking and enlarging scanned, faxed or copied documents.
The Lumina 2000 connects to the PC through the parallel port, and the printer, in turn, connects to it.