If you're having trouble choosing a brand of copier to lease, it might help to look at the 2011 awards given out by various industry organizations for the top copiers of the year. Each year, several organizations recognize brands and specific copier models as top performers in the industry. Below is a selection of some of the 2011 award-winning brands and models of copiers.
Drumroll please...
Copystar, a division of Kyocera Mita, won a set of top copier awards in 2011. Since 1961, Buyers Laboratory has been providing information on the imaging industry. They awarded their prestigious 2011 Summer Pick awards for robust feature set, reliability and productivity for the following Copystar multifunction copy machines: the CS 5550ci color, the FS-C2126MFP color MFP, the CS 205 Black & White MFP and the ECOSYS FS-C5250DN.
Looking purely at sales, the most popular of the top copiers companies in the U.S. market was Ricoh. According to the latest Gartner's market share database, Ricoh has been in the number one position for the fourth year in both the color and black & white copier segment of the industry. Additionally, Ricoh has been leading in the color copier industry with a 22% share.
The Spring BERTL Awards (Business Equipment Research and Testing Laboratories) were awarded to the Canon imageRUNNER 2530 MFP in the category of Best Monochrome MFP/Photocopier. BERTL is a world-renowned institution which provides comparisons on a huge range of imaging devices and bases its evaluations on end user experience. These awards are interesting because they take into account typical business dynamics and not merely raw speed and productivity. The Canon imageRUNNER 2530 was classed as one of the top copiers because of its versatile media handling and flexibility.
In March 2011, Toshiba scored another victory with the Business Technology Association Channel winning the Superior Performance Award for the 12th consecutive year. The award is based on the feedback of 400 office technology dealers across the country. The key areas of note honored by this award are corporate support, distribution and inventory.
Epson copiers have also solidified their place on the market by taking away three awards from the Technological Image Press Association (TIPA) for 2011. In particular, the Epson Stylus Photo R3000 (Best Expert Photo Printer), the Stylus Pro 4900 (Best Large Format Printer) and the Perfection V330 Photo (Best Photo Scanner) were the ones that garnered the awards.
Which copier should your business lease?
If you happen to come across a copier that didn't make this list (either a different brand or model) don't write it off! Perhaps you have a smaller budget this year, or are looking to lease a used copier from last year. This doesn't mean the copier won't work for your business. Keep in mind the size and speed needs of your own office, and just use this article as a guide for knowing the leading brands of copiers out there. You can use this site to compare copier lease rates on a Canon, Ricoh, Toshiba, and other top brands of copiers.