Vision 2005 in San Diego, this is the fifth Vision that I have attended. The 2005 version was ok at best. Magic Johnson the keynote speaker was a no show (family emergency, hope everything is ok with Magic), on a moments notice Ricoh was able to get Tony Gywnn to speak. I thought he was quite entertaining and was very informative with his baseball knowledge. For those of you who do not know, Tony is now the head baseball coach at San Diego State University. Reggie Jackson was also there during the second day of the show, all of the attendees were allowed to get a photo with the Hall of Famer.
Highlights of the Product Show:
Katana…………. A samurai sword……. Is the name of the new 135PPM High Volume multifunctional device. (The Worlds Fasted MFP). We were allowed to preview the Katana, this is a prototype and we may have this product by the second quarter of 06. Everyone was very excited to see this product! Lower cpc, faster printing, faster scanning, along with color scanning and many cool new features… We are going to rule the High Volume Market! WINNER!
The CS2105 caught my eye, low volume color copier, printer, scanner, fax with a $799 MSRP. We may have this product during the first quarter of 2006. Hitachi Print Engine that is married to a Brother Scanner (or Samsung). The print engine is the same as the CL1000N. Great box to introduce color in the small office. WINNER!
Seriprint VDP (link for video of SeriVDP)SERI VPD Video was show along with the new HQ9000 Digital Duplicator and high volume envelope feeder. Next to the Katana, the SeriVDP always had a crowd around it. HQ 9000 had outstanding quality, lower master costs, along with being able to use VDP for envelope printing and customized VDP from any MS applications. I think the total MSRP was around $60K for all three products. I recognized great market potential for this system with print shops, CRD’s, and Associations. WINNER!
We were treated to the House of Blues for dinner, drinks and entertainment, Entertainment was provided by a great cover band and Howie Mandel performed for about 45 minutes. Ricoh rented the entire builder for 4 hours, food was excellent, drinks were excellent and a good time was had by all!
Ricoh could not stop apologizing for the Oracle mess and has stated that we should be out of the woods in a few months. They have also allocated more personal to get the problems resolved as soon as possible.
More to follow in a few days!
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