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From: forrest@blia.BLI.COM (Jon Forrest)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Imagen and DDL
Message-ID: <1185@blia.BLI.COM>
Date: Wed, 3-Dec-86 13:55:03 EST
Article-I.D.: blia.1185
Posted: Wed Dec  3 13:55:03 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Dec-86 01:51:49 EST
Organization: Britton Lee, Los Gatos, CA
Lines: 27
Keywords: DDL Imagen

The recent news about HP adopting Imagen's DDL makes me wonder
about Imagen's intentions.

Imagen sells printers based on the Canon engine and uses Impress
as the "page description language". As far as I know, none of
their printers use DDL.

HP sells printers based on the Canon engine and uses a primitive
description language.

HP wants to upgrade its printer line so it makes a deal with Imagen
to use DDL. This means that Imagen's printers (using Impress)
will be competing with HP's printers (using DDL). Given the
quantities of Canon printers HP buys, I would guess that HP
could sell their printers for less than Imagen. Assuming that
DDL isn't much slower than Impress, why would anyone buy
an Imagen printer? Is Imagen thinking of getting out of the
hardware business? Does the deal with HP prescribe any kind of
pricing arrangements? These are all speculations, not based
on any facts.

I've used Imagen printers for quite a while and would buy more.
I just wonder if they're shooting themselves in the foot.
Maybe someone from Imagen could enlighten us.

Jon Forrest
ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!forrest