After the Thursday market close, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) announced earnings and some news (they're going to start using AMD processors in some of their servers). And like HP (NYSE: HPQ) the other day, their stock is up 4% at the open of the markets the next morning. And also like HP, they included some interesting factoids regarding their printer business. They report that their overall imaging products business grew 10% year-over-year revenue-wise (compared to HPQ's 5%), aided by 54% growth in the consumables (such as "ink and toner cartridges and paper") portion of the business (compared to HPQ's 10% growth in this area). They also noted the consumables portion now represents over half the category's total revenues (this split -- supplies making up over half of total revenues -- has been the case in the printing industry at large for some time, but would be expected to take some time, for the installed base to grow, in the case of Dell). Dell also pre-announced "a new generation of business color, mono and multi-function laser printers" to be detailed later this quarter -- also in-line with HP's emphasizing "color laser printer shipments and printer-based MFP shipments up 38% and 44% year-over-year, respectively" in their May 16, 2006 announcement. Low-end consumer hardware continues to be de-emphasized in both camps, with HP noting a revenue decline of 8%.
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