A hybrid device gives you color capabilities for only slightly more than the cost of a monochrome machine. The benefits are clear...but what about the risks?

By Jeffrey A. Smith

ALL COPIER manufacturers are now offering hybrid color copier/printers that any company can afford. These products, suitable for business-quality color applications, generally produce less than 40 pages per minute (ppm), with even faster units promised by the manufacturers for 2006 and 2007.

Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta and Ricoh (also offered under the Savin, Lanier and Gestetner labels) have been the hybrid copier/printer manufacturing leaders to-date, but Kyocera Mita, Toshiba and Sharp have also offered hybrid products of merit. This article will explain the reasons for the hybrid copier/printer revolution and what the advantages and challenges are to consumers going forward.