I've just bought an old HP 1125C A3 printer via auction for occasional 
A3 printing use.
Found this HP q&A page which is far funnier (or is that sadder?) in 
places than I'm sure HP meant it to be.


People may find it interesting to translate these answers into what HP 
are really saying or thinking.
I've offered some [[suggestions]] which may, of course, be incorrect.


        Russell.. .

______________

Selected q/a's

        http://h41131.www4.hp.com/fi/fi/pr/FIfi17072000000057.html

...

2. Why is the HP DeskJet 1125C only offered in Europe and the 
Asia-Pacific?
We believe the affordability of the HP DeskJet 1125C will be less 
compelling in the US, as there will be stronger preference for product 
features and benchmark performance over price.
[[We can sell the dearer better profit margin printer well enough in 
the US where the buyers have more money and are less value 
discerning.]].

6. Who are you targeting with the HP DeskJet 1125C?
The HP DeskJet 1125C is targeted at SBSOs and Home Office users. They 
are likely to have direct connect to a PC or to be in a workgroup, 
sharing the printer among 2-5 users.
[[ BUT - see  24 below. Interesting.]] [[How much can a network 
connection cost the maker as a % of all up out-the-door printer cost, 
once you've implemented it?]][[Is there a darker motive here? Probably 
not.]].


8. How often does the target customer print in A3 size?
Research indicates that about 10% to 20% of the output printed by HP 
DeskJet 1125C users in the small business market segment would be on 
media larger than A4/letter size. The remaining 80% of output would be 
on A4/letter size media.
[[We hope you'll print A3 far far more now than you thought you 
would]].

11. How is the HP DeskJet 1125C different from the HP DeskJet 1120C 
series of printers?
The HP DeskJet 1125C is an enhanced product offered to customers at a 
lower price relative to the HP DeskJet 1120C. The enhancements include 
Mac support, USB hardware interface as well as support for major 
operating systems such as Windows 98, 2000 and Me.
[[More bells, less whistles]].


On Print Quality:
13. Why does the HP DeskJet 1125C offer only HP PhotoREt II and HP 
ColorSmart II technologies, rather than benchmarks such as HP PhotoREt 
III and HP ColorSmart III?
HP's product strategy and design philosophy is to provide innovative 
products with relevant features at an optimum price to satisfy 
customer needs. HP PhotoREt II offers brilliant photo-quality printing 
on any media, realistic, natural-looking photos, fast color printing 
and clear, sharp and vibrant color output. HP ColorSmart II, 
introduced in 1997, evaluates pages automatically and adjusts colors 
to maximise vividness and clarity. These sophisticated color 
technologies are more than sufficient to meet the needs of our target 
customers.
[[We could have done it, but we think that we can force buyers who 
want really decent quality to buy the dearer model]].


Cost-per-page:
17. What is the cost per page for this printer?
For black and white printing on plain A4/letter size paper (5% page 
coverage), the average cost per page (US$) is approximately 3 cents 
while printing a color page (15% page coverage) costs approximately 7 
cents.
[[ Yeah. Right!]].


21. Is the ink light fast?
There are varying degrees of lightfastness. The inks used in the 
DeskJet 1125C are designed to be lightfast in indoor lighting for up 
to six months.
[[No !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Are you stupid!!!! ?? ]][[It must take REALLY 
clever chemists to design an ink this bad]].


24. Why are we disabling network support for the China market?
Our research indicates that network support is not a key feature that 
our target customers in the China market will desire. As such, we have 
not provided this feature for our customers there.
[[See 6. above ]].


34. Do I need special paper to get photo quality printouts?
With the smaller ink drop sizes and increased color intensities per 
dot enabled by HP PhotoREt II, the HP DeskJet 1125C provides excellent 
print quality on any media. However for special occasions, users may 
prefer to use special media such as HP Premium Inkjet Paper and HP 
Premium Photo Paper to produce the best print quality that the printer 
is capable of.
[[ Absolutely !!!!]].



38. Why is it that a printer cable is not included?
Many customers already have a printer cable of their own while others 
may require a longer or shorter cable than what HP provides. HP is not 
including a printer cable with the HP DeskJet 1125C as customers would 
have to pay for something that they may not use.
[[ We're cheap.]]


39. Almost every printer manufacturer is bundling software with their 
printers. Why isn't HP doing this for the HP DeskJet 1125C?
Application software today have such a wide-ranging array of features 
that bundling specialised software with printers no longer add value 
to our customers. In addition, softwares keep getting upgraded 
quickly, diminishing the value of bundled software very quickly.
[[ We're cheap.]]


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