Tally Offers Replacement for Withdrawn InfoPrint Printer

August 16, 2011 Alex Woodie

InfoPrint Solutions‘ recent decision to stop marketing serial and line matrix printers, thermal printers, and workgroup printers by the end of the year, and instead focus on high-end printers has spurred its competitors to fill the gaps. Last week, Dascom Americas announced that it’s ready to fill the void left by the withdrawal of the InfoPrint 4247 printer with the Tally “iSeries” 4247 series.

In April, Ricoh, the corporate parent of InfoPrint Solutions (the former IBM printing division) announced its intention to exit the market for lower end and general office printers, and instead focus on making and selling larger printers. It also formed the Ricoh Production Print Solutions (RPPS), which combined InfoPrint assets with elements of Ricoh’s production printing group. Ricoh also announced it would close the former InfoPrint headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, in favor of its existing facilities in West Caldwell, New Jersey.

It didn’t take long for the competitors of Ricoh/InfoPrint to jump on the opportunity. In July, Dascom Americas, the Virginia-based marketer of Tally and TallyGenicom serial matrix printers, announced the Tally 4247 series of heavy duty serial printers.

The Tally 4247 printers feature 24-pin print heads that DASCOM says are built for long life and a heavy workload. The 4247-i08 and the slightly faster 4247-i10 both offer standard Ethernet and Parallel interfaces, but can support Twinax and Coax as well. IDPS is supported, too.

Ron Acorn, President of DASCOM Americas, touted his company’s new “iSeries” line of printers, including the Tally 4247-i08 and 4247-i10. “At a time when some long time manufacturers are exiting this market, we will continue to service this important niche,” he says in a press release. “We strongly believe our products will fit nicely into markets being vacated by others and our targeted, strategic approach with the 4247 series will offer us the opportunity to reach new market segments without affecting our existing customers or channel partners.”

The Tally 4247-i10 multiform printer is being positioned as a workhorse printer suitable to replace the withdrawn InfoPrint 4247 printer.

Last week, DASCOM Americas (the U.S. division of the Chinese printing giant) announced that it had signed two resellers, Printer Connection Inc. (PCI) and ABA Moriah, to carry the Tally 4247 lineup.

“We have specialized in this segment of the market for over a decade,” PCI president Mike Walker says in a press release. “We understand the expectations of current IBM/InfoPrint users and resellers. We believe the new Tally 4247 iSeries product line will not only meet, but quite likely surpass those expectations based on ruggedness, available options, pricing, service offerings, and overall print capability.”

An InfoPrint Solutions spokesperson says: “InfoPrint Solutions/RPPS is working with its current vendors for Industrial products, Printronix and Compuprint, to insure that comparable models will continue to be offered after InfoPrint Solutions’ withdrawal from marketing.”