In order to capture a large percent of the low-cost printer market, IBM had to leapfrog the competition in terms of performance. Print speed was currently only 80 characters per second, but by the time the Proprinter was designed and manufactured, IBM predicted that the industry standard would be 200 characters per second. Therefore, the designers set a target of 200 characters per second for the Proprinter. Other design objectives were also set such as: near-letter quality printing, front-feed single sheet paper handling, and automatic pinfeed paper handling. These additional feature requirements had to be met under a constant cost constraint of $500 per printer. In order for the Proprinter to gain market share and become profitable, IBM had a limited window in which to release the Proprinter. A late entry into the market would mean the Proprinter would already be outdated technology. This market factor limited the time IBM could spend developing its low-cost printer.
Charley Rogers, product manager, talks about designing the Proprinter for flexible use of ever changing printer technology.
