LineJet business to depart HP’s hangar

3000 division plans to move impact printer business to Printronix

Following the HP corporate mission to focus on core businesses, the HP e3000 group is turning over its impact printer duties to the maker of HP LineJets, Printronix.

The CSY division has been responsible for marketing and distribution of the LineJets for several years, although the devices can operate with more computer systems than just the HP 3000. By December 1, all marketing and sales will be back in the hands of Printronix, the company which manufactures LineJets and then OEMs them to HP.

The HP LineJet models affected by the announcement are the 500P, 500Q, 1000Q and 1500Q. Also being dropped from the HP price list in November are the 1500Q with the power stacker, a QMS Graphics Kit and the PGL Graphics Upgrade.

At about the same time Printronix expects to introduce transition products. The new line of P5000LJ series impact printers are promised to have all of the features and functionality of the current HP LineJet family, including the PCL emulation.

HP will continue to support its LineJets for five years after they leave the HP price list. Customers who have HP support contracts will be able to receive support from the HP Response Center. Customers will also be able to purchase ribbons for these printers from HP during the support period.

Hewlett-Packard’s Kriss Rant, who is managing the transition, said the company is also looking into offering HP support for the forthcoming Printronix impact printers.

Impact printing is a close match with a good share of the HP 3000 application base, especially the manufacturing and distribution environments where rugged printers are a must. Rant said that HP wants to focus more on its core printing business, but the decision to drop the LineJets was the division’s to make.

“We understand the importance of impact printing to our customers, but it’s just not a market that fits in with HP’s long-term direction,” Rant said.

Some customers believe the new relationship might yield lower prices and better service. LineJet owners were working through problems with the HP 3000’s page-level recovery last year, a solution that required memory upgrades and new firmware to fix. A power-cycle of the printer was still required after the upgrade — but at least the HP 3000 spooler was able to tell the LineJet where the print job was interrupted and continue printing.

During the problem period, HP didn’t always present an assured view that its printing engineers understood nuances of the HP 3000. One HP representative from Boise’s printer group assured 3000 customers they’d simply have to ask for a Unix expert on trouble calls about LineJet printers, apparently unaware the 3000 doesn’t run Unix.

CSY may have been able to educate the printer group about the 3000 since then. Rant said that the 3000 division’s involvement with the LineJets was “just a small team focused on it marketing and engineering resources. We’re still committing to being able to print off the 3000. We’ve been working closely with the printing division over the last year or so.”

In the new arrangement for the Printronix devices, Rant said Printronix will own the process of certifying the Printronix-branded printers on new versions of MPE/iX, HP-UX, and NT NetServers. “If they require technical assistance, they will be able to utilize the normal HP channel partner help desk, which would be the Solution Provider Program (CSPP),” he said. “CSY backs up the CSPP Program.”

Printronix and CSY said in a joint letter that the new printers “will be exclusively available through the HP channel partners for HP customers.” Rant said discussions were underway to let 3000 customers order the new printers through their current resellers. The same options, spares and consumables will work with both the LineJets and the new devices.

The 3000 division has product line responsibility until November 1. “The decision [to discontinue it] was pretty much made inside CSY,” Rant said. “We’re empowered to make those kinds of decisions.”

The decision doesn’t free up a lot of resources at the division, he added. “Since this is an OEM product, we leveraged a lot of resource and content from Printronix. All the core engineering talent is at Printronix.” Customers can have questions addressed at the SIG-Print meeting at next month’s HP World conference.