At 60,500 for the 8050, with EFIs latest Fiery RIP, its price is extremely competitive compared to Xeroxs DocuColor 2000 series.

You get a basic but effective print system for 60,000, said Konica UK marketing director John Howard.

And it is not just attacking Xerox on engine price. Konica also claims that the total cost of ownership, including hardware, maintenance and clicks, works out at 9.2p per page whereas a DocuColor comes out at 15.11p.

The Konica is limited by a recommended duty cycle of a maximum of 150,000 pages per month with a sweet spot of 80,000.

Howard admitted that could be seen as a limitation, but countered: Yes, but compared to the Xerox you could have three of our machines for the same money.

The firm promised that the 8050 would be the first of many colour production devices that it launches. Within the next couple of years these will include 40ppm and 60-70ppm machines. The faster machines will handle higher monthly production volumes, according to Howard.

Commercial print is one of five key markets identified for the machine and Konica is currently training its salesforce about the market. It is also interested in finding resellers for the market to build on its direct salesforce, which makes the majority of its sales.

Konica is previewing the 8050 to potential customers and will ship the machine in October.

A maximum sheet size of 488x336mm and maximum stock weight of 256gsm make the 8050 a contender for professional print use. It uses a polymerised toner that produces good image quality and features a variable temperature fuser to adjust the toner gloss level to match the stock.
Konica claims it has no problems running matt through to photogloss stock.

It also has a range of online finishing options including bookletmaking, post-fuser insertion, stapling and hole punching.

Contact www.konica.co.uk.