WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
5-4-08
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.
- Xerox had a press briefing to discuss project under development at its Palo Alto Research Center in CA:
o Clean Tech – solar collectors and water filtration technology
o Biomedical – cancer cell detection
o Greener Plastics – make plastics from corn stalks
o Reusable copy paper – special yellow thermal paper that when used with a special printer, the image disappears after a day
o Solid Ink – further development of its hot, melted was inkjet technology (as used in desktop color Phaser models that start with a “3” or “8”
o Intelligent Redaction – faster way to edit confidential documents
o Seamless Documents – access documents from a cell phone
- Xerox announced a partnership with Stora Enso for a new finishing option for the iGen3 production color system:
o Designed to make pharmaceutical labels/packages
o Uses XMPie variable data software
o Uses Epic CTi-635 gloss coating system (aqueous or UV)
o Incorporates a KAMA die cutter and stacker conveyor
o Pricing unknown
- Xerox announced that it will relabel CD-ROM duplicators made by Vinpower Digital, of Los Angeles, CA. The company also relabels LCD display from ProView and scanners from Visioneer.
- Kodak announced it had sold an NexPress M700 (relabeled Canon imagePRESS C7000VP) to Antalis Graphics, a print shop in South Africa.
- Kodak conducted a conference for print shop owners who use Kodak hardware, at The Wynn Resort in Las Vegas. 314 end users attended to learn how to better market digital output, during week of 4/21/08.
- Kodak reported its last quarter’s financials:
o total revenue of $2.093 billion, up 1%
o reported loss of $81 million
o gross profit margin of 20.3% down from 20.6%
o total debt of $1.6 billion
o has $2.2 billion in cash
o Graphic Communications Group (NexPress, DigiMaster production print engines) had sales of $812 million, up 4%, but had loss of $1 million due to R&D costs associated with high speed color inkjet engine
- Dell Computer, which had exclusively relabeled printers made by Lexmark, announced it will now source some desktop color inkjet units from Olivetti of Italy.
- Samsung of Korea announced new laser MFPs coming to market later this year.
o all models offer extended warranties that do NOT include supplies
o all only use letter/legal size paper
o SCX-4500W, offers 16ppm b/w laser print/scan/copy for $299
o SCX-4300 offers 19ppm b/w laser print/scan/copy for $179
o SCX-4824FN offers 24ppm b/w laser print/scan/copy/fax with document feeder
o SCX-4828FN offers 28ppm b/w laser print/scan/copy/fax with document feeder
o CLX-3170 is smallest color laser printer, offering 4ppm color and 16ppm b/w
o CLX-3175FN offers 4ppm color laser and 16ppm b/w with copy/print/scan/fax
- Kyocera is partnering with Sagem of France to make desktop color laser MFP, the MF6890X features:
o Letter/legal only
o 24ppm b/w or color
o Scan/print/copy/fax
o Document feeder and scanner assembly made by Avision of Taiwan
o Uses Kyocera’s amorphous silicon ceramic drums (hard surface provides long life, but can not do 8 bits per pixel)
o Embedded print controller with 400MHz processor and 128MB RAM
HP PCL and PostScript print drivers
o Optional extended warranties do NOT include expensive supplies
o Will be initially marketed in Europe only
- Okidata now shipping the CX3641 (which it hopes will compete against the bizhub C353):
o Uses Light Emitting Diode technology instead of laser
o 36ppm top speed color and 40ppm top speed b/w
o MSRP of $19,000.00
o Uses 4 tandem OPC drum design
o Uses pulverized/crushed toner infused with wax
o Replaces the ES3640
o Max duty cycle of 150K/month
o Has two LCD displays, one for the MFP functionality and one for the printer features
The MFP LCD is an 8”x6” color touch screen
o Scanner is actually made by Avision of Taiwan, rather than Okidata
Document feeder runs at 36opm at 300dpi, but slows down to 10ppm for 600dpi when copying
Scans both sides of original at same time
Holds up to 100 originals
o Optional fax kit for $499
o Comes standard with 530 sheet drawer, a 1,590 sheet letter size only drawer and a 230 sheet stack bypass
o Drawers support up to 80lb. cover stock maximum
o Auto duplex standard, up to 80lb. cover stock
o Supplies used are:
Black toner has yield of 18,500 pages (based on 5% coverage) for $37
Color toners have yield of 16,500 pages (based on 5%) for $159 each
Black drum yield of 30,000 for $104
Color drums yield 30,000 pages each for $290 each
$8.40 for waste toner bottle with yield of 30,000 pages
$135 for fuser unit with100,000 page yield
$150 for mylar film transfer belt with 100,000 page yield
o First color copy out time of 12 seconds
o Embedded EFI Fiery print server:
40GB hard drive
1 GHz processor
1GB RAM
USB & 10/100BaseT ports
HP PCL and Adobe PostScript print drivers
Optional embedded EFI SendMe for $1200.00
• is designed to compete with eCopy
• rather than using separate keyboard and LCD, it uses the LCD and control panel of the MFP
• runs on the OS of the Fiery, rather than using a separate PC
• does not include any connectors, which are extra at $1800 apiece
• scan to folder, scan to print, e-mail, and HDD
• LDAP compatible
• Auto deskew, despeckle and rotation
• Optional embedded Nuance OmniPage OCR for $1600.00
o Optional finishing includes:
$3189 for a booklet making finisher (up to 15 sheets)(similar to FS609)
$369 for hole-punch kit
- Captaris Software, maker of RightFax, rejected a $125 million takeover attempt by Vector Capital. It is however reviewing other offers apparently. Captaris recently bought the software division of Oce’ for $15 million.
- Mimeo.com hired Chuck Gehman as VP of Product Platforms. Mr. Gehman was the Director of Product Management at EFI, maker of Fiery print controllers.
- IKON won a “Best Category Management For Business Service” award from Staples locations in Canada, for assisting them in setting up a web-2-print solution for production print.
- Another dealer sells out. Associated Business Systems (ABS) sells out to Ricoh. Details:
o Started in 1997
o Current president is Craig Knouf, and he will now be in charge of Ricoh’s branches in Oregon and Washington
o Started a dealer for Ricoh, and added Kyocera, Canon, Lexmark and Hewlett Packard
o Offices in Portland, Salem, Eugene and Bend, Oregon
o Was a HP VIP dealer carrying the Edgeline inkjet color MFPs
o Largest customers were:
Columbia Sportswear
Mentor Graphics
Windermere
Familian NW
Mortgage Market
City of Portland
MetroOne Telecommunications
o Had 176 employees
o In 2007, was named “Dealer of the Year” by the Business Technology Association
o Won Ricoh’s Chairman’s Award for over quota performance
- Ricoh announced that it will no longer make stand-alone scanners as it had in the past.
- Ricoh, in Europe, launched the “Pro” versions of the Ricoh-made production print b/w engines. The Pro 9006ex (90ppm), the Pro 1106ex (110ppm) and Pro 1356ex (135ppm) were launched. These new versions offer an optional perfect binder, and/or in-line fully automated ring binder.
- More details from the Toshiba dealer meeting held in Carlsbad, CA the week of 3/3/08:
o Attended by 550 people representing 350 dealers
o Claimed U.S. is most important marketplace
o The year 2007 was “growing and profitable” but “disappointing”, as revenue and profit fell short of plan
o Dealers account for 40-50% of total sales
o Branches account for 33% of sales
Rest of sales come from DANKA and Latin America
Revenue growing at branches faster than dealers due to professional services growth
o Even though 52 dealers have been purchased, will continue to buy more
o eCopy is its best selling solution
o 75% of dealers are selling ReRite OCR, which is a relabeled product from RedMap of Australia
o 250 dealers now participating in managed print services program
o Announced new ad campaign with themes of “the copier is just the beginning” and “technology needs people”
- Toshiba announced that it is considering developing high speed INKJET color MFPs using the Memjet technology from Kia Silverbrook of Australia.
- Toshiba announced it will resell search software from Blackball of California and call it Toshiba eBridge ReSearch.
- Toshiba gave out a “Distributor Of the Year” award to Collins Company of Memphis, TN, which wholesales low end Toshiba printers and MFPs to independent dealers that can not buy directly from Toshiba.
- Netaphor Software of Irvine, CA launched new software for tracking clicks on printers and MFPs. The new software, called SiteAudit 2.0, supposedly is the only software that can track clicks without the need to load software on each individual workstation.
- Canon announced it will spend $625 million to build a new plant. Details:
o located in Newport News, Virginia
o employ 1035 people
o average salary of $40,000/year
o offers 750,000 sq feet of space
o will be called Marketing Emerging Technology Center
o Canon will receive $20 million from Virginia state government
o Will use robotics to make toner cartridges
o On same site, is existing plant that makes remanufactured copiers (imageRUNNER 600v, etc.)
o Canon announced that its office equipment division represents 68% of its total revenue worldwide
- Quebecor Corp. announced it is laying off 700 print shop employees in Ontario and Connecticut due to declining sales.
- Hewlett Packard announced it has sold an Indigo 5000 and Indigo 5500 production color systems to BSQUARED Design & Printing of New York. In addition, an Indigo system was sold to DirectMail.com of Prince Frederick, MD.
- DocuWare announced a new document management software product, DocuWare Web Client, featuring:
o allows access to central document pool without need to install software or plug-ins
o using Web browser to access any kind of document
o Windows authentication provides security from unwanted viewers
o Based on Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) and Asynchronous JavaScript & XML (AJAX)
- Tough times for office supply superstores. Both OfficeMax and Office Depot have lost 60% of their stock value in past year.
o Office Depot reported a 51% drop in net income, with sales decreased by 3%
o OfficeMax reported 10.5% lower earnings and 5.5% sales decline
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