With the release of the new TASKalfa series of colour MFP models Kyocera became the second vendor in the market to offer the potential for 3 separate colour meter counters to be used to price colour 'clicks' on their colour MFPs. They are the only vendor that offers this capability on a toner based, "traditional" MFP. The only other vendor to offer a tiered colour pricing model is Xerox on their colour cube products, but these also involve a controversial solid ink technology which complicates the decision on adoption. They do not offer the tiered colour pricing on their toner based products.I have been surprised how little mention this capability has had in the print industry and how little Kyocera has done to promote the capability for this pricing model to be offered. I guess there is a fear that it will further erode the means for dealers to be able to obtain the income needed to be able to service machines properly, or that it will just erode the price point for colour clicks in general.
My sense is that it does not have to do either or these things if it is understood what the 3 Tier Model provides and how it can be implemented to be fair to both the purchaser and the service provider. After all, if there is not enough revenue generated so that the dealer can properly support the device, then no one wins.
How does this work?
Under the 3 Tier Model there are three bands of price offered for colour images based upon the amount of colour coverage on a given page. These bands can be set by the dealer and a price applied to each tier. The MFP determines which tier to count the click in based upon the percentage of colour coverage on the page. B&W coverage is not affected.
Think about a low coverate tier, a middle coverage tier and a full or normal coverage tier for example. Usually the specific colour coverage percentage is quoted for each tier along with the click charge for each.
The beauty of the system is that a client can determine while using the device what the price will be that is charged for a page simply by checking the counter to see what tier increments when the page is printed. This could be very handy in designing a letterhead so it hits the low price tier...or for any other document you are creating to customize your output to hit an acceptable.
Does 3 Tier mean lower costs for the client and revenue for the dealer?
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