Coming third quarter (Rumor has it) of 2007 a new MFP! 50 Pages per minute in Color, copies, prints and scans letter and legal from .......................HP! MSRP APPROX $8,000 without accessories.
Recently at a Monster Mayhem meeting, color Product managers told us that liquid ink (made from water) will be the technology that drives the print speeds for color over 50ppm to 100ppm! The admission was that the color speeds could not be achieved with current technology. Imagine that, 50ppm systems in Color! No more Drums, no more developer, no more CONSUMABLE Items and no more techs?!
Will NEW ink technology push us out of business or will it increase our desire to sell new emerging office technology. Could be that every town will may have two or three VAR's (Value Added Resellers), dealerships that relied on selling copiers and may now have to rely on selling technology.
I’m not too sure of the future for dealerships that rely on consumable items for a staple of profit. I think most of us would be out of business if it were not for the consumables. Canon, HP, Ricoh, Xerox they all make money by putting ink on paper, whether it is dry ink or liquid ink. Once the "ink" boxes are in the field the systems will and are (ink jet printers) reaping millions in profits from toner and ink. Lets face it, the ink will sold by an Authorized Dealer to Staples or Max and the profit of the ink will be lost forever.
While watching Discover Channel, I ran across a show that was dedicated to the manufacturing of ink. The main ingredient is water and other chemicals are added to add color, viscosity and to control drying and fading. Seems to me that all of these inks would be easier to manufacture than dry toners and developers, also easier to store, easier to ship, plus the elimination of all consumables.
Riso currently is selling a 102 page per minute ink jet duplicator. Riso and Olympus joined forces for the R & D and launched this model about a year ago. Print quality is so, so, however this was the first generation system. Epson has the "High Quality" eight color technology already working in their wide format color printers, while Canon and Hp on right on their heels.
The color-printing industry is estimated to be worth over $300bn worldwide, and ink-jet technology will continue to eat into this market by taking over from traditional, analog printing. Ink Jet is environmentally friendly, uses relatively cheap components, and does not require expensive manufacturing facilities.
With Epson’s variable Droplet Technology the 9800 printer can produce up to three different droplet sizes per print line. 16 x 20 prints can print as fast as 16ppm! That’s approaching 32 ppm for letter size in my book and these speeds are for photographic quality. It could just be a matter of time before "High Quality" ink technology makes it to the office in the form of HQ MFP's. Hey, with liquid ink you can print virtual print onto any type of media, look at the Seri Printer from Ricoh, change the chemical makeup and add a UV light source and eureka the Seri will put ink onto all types of media that was only possible with the tradition printing press. Think about how Dry toner is fixed to the paper via heat and pressure.
I'm not sating that we are all going out of business... I am stating that we should be concerned were the technology is taking us. It may take a good twenty years for all of this to take place; I know I'll be out of the business by then.
Consumables are our lifeblood in this business, a business that is rapidly changing the way we do business. About a week ago I visited a friend in PA, he works for a large copier dealership and for years the word "COPY" was in their corporate name. He showed me a new business card with a new name, and the word "COPY" was nowhere to be found!
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