Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!

Never.  They're too focused on high-end production and SoHo machines to gave a damn about anything else.  Nothing in between seems to matter.

They are never going to get their act together. I spoke with Jim Corridi at the CDA meeting several months ago and he told me big things were coming down the pipeline very soon because he agreed it would be hard to upgrade 3406WD systems with a 3406WD  system. He also, however, acted like the Epson was going to be the latest and greatest thing for all of us that sell wide format. Not sure why since we don't typically mess with the ink jet machines. You can find the Epson's extremely cheap online from any sources.

The "big things" was hopefully not a teaser to keep dealers on board for wide format. Still, the only two I know about are the higher end wf's and not the W3601 series, anyone hear anything else?

We were talking with KIP but my father did not want to order 2 or 3 machines at one time for inventory like they wanted us to. I talked with Oce' and the guy was pretty much like talking to a wall and said he didn't need anymore dealers in his territory and pretty much hung up. I would like to have an alternative and not be at Ricoh's mercy. I have tried to upgrade 3406's with 3406's and it doesn't go over that well.

Even "Oceania" Ricoh has the W2401. Even though it's not an upgrade it would help with price sensitive deals.

Jason,

Talk to KIP again I have never heard of KIP asking dealers to stock machines(maybe one for the demo floor).

Plus KIP is releasing the new 800 series next month and these machines look like they should be good sellers. 8 full color "D"s per minute and 10K less that the Oce colorwave.

We sell or have sold all the major lines of wide format, KIP, Oce, Ricoh, even going back to Xerox. All our sales reps and techs prefer the KIPs.

GR

2014 Toner based Wide Format sales.

• Seiko 1.8%
• Ricoh 24%
• OCE 33%
• KIP 41%

The Epson thing is a joke.  You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer.

I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the garbage).

Would love to have KIP now.

At least Ricoh not last.....bahahahaha

Art,

I think the industry is starting to figure out that Oce equipment is not as well built as it used to be.

My techs hate working on them.

In fact were finding the Ricohs are more reliable than the Oces.

GR

I do find the Ricoh's to be very reliable. What they need is speed though, IMO. Have worked with a steel maker on some projects and he has 4 big Oce's that run all day long, 5 days a week. He loved the 3406 but said he would have to buy about 8 or 10 of them do the same work the 4 high speed Oce's run. He wouldn't bite on the 7140's either.

Call that KIP sales Rep again and make a deal with him. If you can get the deal with 2 KIP 9900s (those will replace the 4 Oce's), then you get to be a KIP dealer. He will also spend half as much in toner as those Oce machines just eat toner.

We're still trying to figure out this whole wide format thing out. Had a repro company also that would not even glance at the 7140 nor the supposed upgrade

I'm pretty sure that the repro companies think that Oce' is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I am hard pressed to find any that don't have oce

Wide Format is in a big transition right now, I know KIP is no longer going to be putting any R&D into monochrome printing anymore. Its all color from this point forward, I know Oce (or CSA) is thinking the same way. I can't speak for Ricoh but at this point why would you put any money into it. Ink jet is not the answer ether so the Epson deal in not going to get you into too many doors. If the KIP 800 series is priced right (somewhere in the $25K-30K area) a lot of them will be going in. The big reason for the color switch is that the AEC industry now has the BIM (Building information modeling) requirments.

GR81:

Good stuff, first time I heard of BIM

Jason,

We don't were a repro company as well and we only use KIP.

It's tough getting a company to switch.... But like I said look for a big switch over to color in the next couple of years.

GR81 That's good info. Thank you for that.

I would be absolutely shocked if 16% really set up PlotWorks.  I can tell you its been 0% here.  I'm guessing that 15% out of the 16% that did set it up were Ricoh direct sales.

everything is about to change