HP breaks the price barrier

Hewlett-Packard has broken the $200 barrier with its latest color printer in an effort to garner the attention of price-sensitive buyers in the competitive low-end printer market.

The DeskJet 400 printer, which will replace the DeskJet 600 and 600C printers, is capable of printing 3 pages per minute at 600-by-300 dots per inch (dpi) with black ink. Consumers can swap out the black ink cartridge for a color cartridge bundled with the printer to get 300-by-300 dpi color pages.

HP is currently shipping the DeskJet 400 for $199 and is plug-and-play ready for Windows 95 as well as Windows 3.1 compatible.

Canon, however, wants to divert some consumer attention to its own latest printer. Canon's new BJC-240 prints at 720-by-360 dpi in monochrome and 360-by-360 dpi in color mode with the optional color kit.

The color BJC-240 retails for $179, and uses a separate $37 cartridge to enable photo-quality color printing. According to Canon, the model is set to ship in mid-August.

Related Story:
HP cuts flagship PC prices