The printers were launched by Vu Tran, country manager for Bangladesh, Lexmark, through a 'meet the press' event last week.

"Bangladesh is the fastest growing market and therefore, we dedicate our efforts at updating our product line in this market as fast as possible," he said.

He pointed out that the Lexmark brand had an upward market growth each and every year of their operation.

The growth is reflective of Lexmark's global market growth.

"Lexmark currently enjoys a market share of 29 per cent combining inkjet, laser and the All-in-One plus fax featured products," he said.

Tran cited that the current position of Lexmark has been achieved through product innovation and the usual traits of their printers like speed, reliability, quality and low acquisition cost.

Computer Source is the local distributors for Lexmark since 2003 and were the organisers of the launch.

"Around 80 per cent retailers of Lexmark printers are in IDB and Elephant Road Computer Market due to the brand's reliability and effective pricing. We are also capable of asking for prices which are at least 10 to 15 per cent lower than our competitors," Tran informed.

Also present at the event were Normar Ku, sales and marketing manager, Lexmark, AHM Mahfuzul Arif, managing director of Computer Source along with other partners and resellers of Lexmark printers.

The first product to be launched is the Lexmark Z735 for graphics and priting. The printer can efficiently print at a speed up to 15 pages per minute (ppm). It provides up to 4800x1200 dpi print resolution on photo paper. The printer can print 2200 pages out of one cartridge.

Next on the line is the Lexmark E342N, an affordable printer with unique networking features. Along with a built-in 10/100BaseTX Ethernet card for network printing, it has a printing resolution of 1200x1200 dpi. The E342n can print at a speed of up to 30 pages per minutes (ppm).

The Lexmark X1195 is appropriately called the 'All-in-One' as it works at a speed of 14ppm black and 8ppm colour. The resolution is 4800x1200 dpi on photo paper in best mode & has a scanner with 600x1200 dpi capability. The scanner can be enhanced to 9600 dpi. There is embedded with Lexmark photo editor software which aids users to scan, edit and print images.

The Lexmark W840N is wide-format (A3, Ledger) performing at 50 ppm and a 625 MHz processor can be a reliable office machine. The printer has 1100-sheet input, offset stacking for standard output with optional 4,000-sheet input, and a 3,500-sheet finisher with multi-position stapling, and hole punch capability.

Last but not the least is the Lexmark T642 Multifunction Printer, providing the best value with 64MB memory, a standard 457 MHz processor, and 600-sheet input. The printer comes with optional wireless, security options, special applications and paper handling features. It can process up to 45 ppm on letter size paper.

Lexmark claims that the printer has a 225,000 pages duty cycle.

Seven best resellers of the country were later rewarded at the event.