One of the greatest frustrations of micro owners has been the poor quality of the printer provided with most systems. Until recently, a high quality daisywheel printer (so called because it is composed of a set of spokes or arms, each with a single character, which radiate from a wheel-hub like the petals on a daisy) has cost in excess of $4,000. The domestic market has been dominated by Qume Corp. and Diablo Systems Inc., companies which competed with one another in all but price. Now, it is possible to purchase a Japanese daisywheel printer for under $2,000, especially if one is willing to accept a print speed of 15-20 CPS (characters per second). The biggest of the Japanese importers to date is Ricoh which ships its printers out of Fairfield, New Jersey. A 45 CPS version of its RP 1600 is already in use as part of many Lanier word processing systems. Another major word processing company, CPT Corp., is also planning to go with the RP 1600. The Ricoh unit is priced at approximately $3,000 list, but dealers can purchase them in quantity for under $2,000 each and may then offer them below the list price. NEC Information Systems, a Lexington, Massachusetts, subsidiary of another Japanese company is also expected to start shipping large numbers of inexpensive printers.
Olivetti of Italy plans to begin shipping its DY-2l1 to the U.S. The Contributing Editor recently had an opportunity to see it in Europe where it has been available for a year and was most impressed with both the quality and price, approximately $1,700.
In an apparent response to the foreign invasion, Diablo Systems Inc. has unveiled a 25 CPS daisywheel printer which the company claims is the first stand-alone printer to offer ''drop-ino plastic printwheels with automatic ribbon and printwheel positioning sensors. Listing for $2,000, Diablo has stated that the print quality of the Model 620 equals that of its faster, higher priced Model 630.
