Seikosha (UK) Ltd, part of the Hattori Seiko Group, has four new printers for all MS-DOS machines. At the bottom of the range, and available in November, is the SP 2000, a 9 pin matrix printer, which, at UKP270, is felt to offer good price-performance, as well as being easy to use. A heavy duty printer with 18 pins is the BP 5500, which replaces the existing BP5420. This printer doesn’t really advance much on its predecessor, but has a printing speed of 462 characters per second in draft mode and costs the same at UKP1,525 as the BP5420, has a one year on-site warranty, and will be available in November. Of better quality is the SL 230, a 24 pin printer costing UKP800 and available immediately. Seikosha believes this printer has a number of unique features, such as Smart Card configuration for different computers, which makes it easier for several people to use the same printer for different operations, nine rotary switch fonts and nine character pitch selections. At the top of the range is the OP 215 LED Page printer, which arrives in January next year. Seikosha claims that this model has a very robust engine, with a life of 1.5m pages and a number of options will be available, including RAM extension, font cards (like the Smart Cards), additional int-erface ports and a PostScript version, which enables the printer to maintain its speed for all types of operations. The target price for the standard model is set at under UKP4,000 and for the Postscript version at under UKP5,000. All printers will be available through the company’s distributors. Seikosha is hoping to raise its present 2% share of the UK printer market to 10% by 1992 with the sales of its new printers.
