WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
1-6-08
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.
- Toshiba announced a new option for its digital MFPs, called eBRIDGE SmartCard.
o Use of a personal identity card
o Allows creation of printing and copying protocols
o Will work with current generation building access cards
o Supports HID iClass and MIFARE Classic access cards
o Optional SmartCard card reader connects via USB port for $1200.00
o Admin rights are handled via TopAccess and Windows Active Directory
- History of computer mouse, according to Wired magazine:
o 1965, invented by William English and Doug Englebart
o 1968, copied with original inventors cooperation, for use in a music and animation system at the National Research Council of Canada.
o 1973, Xerox researchers adopted version to make the prototype Alto computer in the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in Palo Alto, CA
o 1980, the 3 Rivers Systems Company of Pittsburgh, PA released the PERQ-1 computer workstation with a mouse.
o 1981, Xerox shows the Star 8010 computer prototype at PARC.
o 1984, after getting a tour of PARC, and seeing the 8010, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer releases the Apple Macintosh computer using a mouse.
- Lyra Research is holding a meeting with copier industry executives.
o Called the 2008 Lyra Imaging Symposium
o Theme is New Technologies Challenging the Business Model
o 1/28-30/2008
o Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, CA
o Bill McGlynn, CEO of Memjet, will make presentation on new page wide inkjet technology
o Bruce Dahlgren, VP of HP, will present HP Print 2.0
o Jim Rise, VP of Xerox, will discuss Phaser solid ink (wax printing)
- According to industry analysts, the most important terms to know when selling connected MFPs are:
o Asset Consolidation
o Asset Management
o Business Color
o Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
o Device Management
o Digital Restriction Management (DRM)
o Document Assessment
o Duty Cycle
o Facilities Management
o Graphics Color
o Life Cycle
o Load Balancing
o Print Management
o Remote Device Management
o Remote Diagnostics
o Workflow Analysis
- Apparent weaknesses on the new Kyocera color MFPs (KM-C2520e, C2525e, C3232e, etc.)
o Scans all pages before starting to make copies, resulting in very slow first copy out time
o When using the optional finisher, the machine slows way down
- ECM Corp. is spending $85 million to buy Document Sciences Corp. of California, which was originally a division of Xerox, that it sold to investors in 2001 for $10 million.
- The top ten worst computer predictions of all time according to PC Magazine:
o “YouTube will go nowhere” (cofounder of YouTube, Steve Chen in 2005)
o “The Millenium Bug will cause end of the world”
o “The Apple iPod will be dead” (Sir Alan Sugar, founder of Amstrad in 2005)
o “Photocopiers are a niche product. The world potential market is 5,000 machines at most” (IBM Corp. told Chester Carlson in 1959)
o “The PC was never meant for home use” (Tom Watson, former CEO of IBM in 1943)
o “This antitrust thing will blow over” (Bill Gates in 1995)
o “We are on a tear to be the undisputed winner in China” (eBay CEO, Meg Whitman in 2005, how just announced it is closing operations in China)
o “Nobody will ever need more than 637K of memory” (Bill Gates in 1981)
o “e-mail spam would be dead in 24 months” (Bill Gates in 2004)
o “Windows will never by a 32-bit OS” (Bill Gates in 1983)
- Xerox researchers are working on a copier paper where the images self-erase for reuse:
o Paper has yellow tint
o Images are created by printer exposing surface to UV light
o Images start to fade in 8 hours, until fully removed
o Image can also be erased by reinserting paper into the special printer, which uses heat to remove image
o Can be reused up to 100 times
o Hope to launch in next couple of years
- In an interview, Hewlett Packard’s VP of its printer division, VJ Yoshi stated:
o HP has 46% of the world’s sales of printers, but only captures 1.6% of the world’s printed pages
o Predicts that 50 trillion pages will be printed in 2010
o Only 8% of world’s pages are made digitally
o Company plans on acquiring more technology firms in 2008 to expand offerings
- In a recent study, 65% of graphic designers stated that they worked on large format color projects. (This is highest level ever, and bodes well for sales of Epson wide format products.)
- Kyocera announced that Better Buys For Business magazine gave them Editors Choice awards for the KM-5050 b/w copier, and the FS-C8100DN color printer.
- Ricoh, out of its InfoPrint division (production print sales HQ) in Boulder, Colorado, is apparently hiring a team called “Global Accounts”, which will call on key accounts worldwide.
- Brain drain at IKON. Keith Powell, one of IKON’s Area Vice Presidents, left to become VP of Sales for Telovations of Tampa, FL, a Cisco networking provider.
- A website was created to be the one source for print drivers from every printer manufacturer. Printcountry.com claims to have print drivers for most every model made by 37 different vendors. According to the company:
o Most requested brands are:
§ HP = 40.5%
§ Canon = 14.3%
§ Lexmark = 11.1%
§ Epson = 10.6%
§ Brother = 4.5%
§ Dell = 4.4%
§ Samsung = 3.6%
§ Sharp = 1.7%
§ Xerox = 1.4%
o Most common operating systems requested:
§ Windows XP = 70.2%
§ Windows 98 = 7.7%
§ Windows Vista = 6.7%
§ Windows 2000 = 5.7%
§ Windows XP Pro x64 = 2.8%
§ Windows ME = 2.4%
§ MacOS = 2.1%
§ Linux = 0.7%
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