WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
2-15-09
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.
- The U.S. Postal Service announced it will increase the cost of a First-Class Mail stamp to a whopping 44 cents on 5/11/2009.
- Xerox is protesting a bid award given to a Ricoh dealer. The Westport Public School District of Connecticut awarded their contract to Advanced Copy Technologies, owned by Greg Gondak. The contract was for 60 months with b/w clicks at $0.009. Xerox claims that its subsidiary, CBS, should have won the bid because it was substantially less, including clicks at only $0.0042. The contract included 5 million clicks per quarter.
- Xerox announced it sold two of its X980 production print systems. These units have twin engines, and use flash fusing for top speed of 900ppm.
- Xerox announced it won a bid to provide 20 color MFPs to Fiat Automotive of England.
- KIP now shipping the Color 80, featuring high speed, wide format color using toner, not inkjet:
- uses LED technology
- Top speed of 4 “D” size posters per minute
- Unlike wide format inkjet printers, the print speed does not slow down if the poster has heavy ink coverage
- 600x600 dpi
- 4 drawers to hold paper rolls
- Extended length printing to 19.7 feet
- Manual sheet bypass for 22”x17” up to 36”x48”
- File formats accepted include; HPGL, HPGL/2, HP-RTL, DWF, PDF, Cals G4, Intergraph CIT/TG4, EPS, TIF, JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, BMP, GIF, TGA, RLC/RL
- Images are waterproof and lightfast
- Supports media including; standard bond, photo gloss, film, billboard blue back and self-adhesive substrates
- Base MSRP of $98,995.00
- Weighs 2,200 lbs.
- Options include:
- Production Printing Suite = $3500
- Premium Color RIP = $3700.00
- PostScript print driver = $3700.00
- Scan station = $22,000.00
- Auto print stacker = $2,795.00
- Auto folding system = $39,995.00
- Fully loaded MSRP of $136,480.00
- Kodak announced that Ricoh will resell its NexPress and DigiMaster digital production systems in Europe. Unknown if Kodak and Ricoh will announce a similar arrangement in the U.S.
- Kodak gave an update on its future color inkjet press, called the Stream:
- 2500 ppm top speed
- 508-660mm wide web that move rolls of paper at 150-200 meters per minute
- Designed to compete against the HP Digital Web Offset press
- Will launch in early 2010
- In a study conducted by PIA/GATF, postcards made by a Kodak NexPress S3000 survived being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service with less marks than any other production color system tested.
- IKON won a bid from the Winchester School District of Indiana. The contract is for 5 years.
- The Tompkins Cortland Community College chose DocuWare for its document management solution. The upstate New York educational system digitized over 40,000 student records.
- In a recent survey of printshops in the U.S., owners stated they spend an average of $35,900 to purchase web-to-print system to increase their revenues.
- In a survey completed by the Photizo Group the following was discovered about dealers who provide managed print services:
- even after an assessment is performed, only 52% of prospects end up signing up for a MPS contract
- The fastest growing segment of customer that is choosing MPS are those with 500-999 employees
- 92% of companies that try MPS renew their contracts
- Street pricing seen recently in the print for pay market:
- Ricoh Aficio PRO 1106EX w/Fiery/LCT/stapling finisher/booklet maker/hole punch for $39,400.00. B/w
clicks at $0.0035. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Canon imageRUNNER 7105 w/Fiery/booklet maker/LCT/cover inserter/hole punch for $34,700.00. B/w clicks at $0.004. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Canon imageRUNNER 7095 w/Fiery/booklet maker/LCT/cover inserter/hole punch for $29,100.00. B/w clicks at $0.004. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Used Canon imageRUNNER 105 w/Fiery/booklet maker/LCT/cover inserter for $11,400.00. B/w clicks at $0.0038. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Xerox DocuColor 242 w/Cero/booklet maker for $37,900.00. Color clicks at $0.049 and b/w clicks at $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Hewlett Packard admitted that hackers can get access to print jobs from certain HP LaserJet printers using the Embedded Web administration tool. Affected units include popular models 4345mpf, 9040mfp, 9050mfp, 9500mfp, etc. HP advises customer to have new firmware installed to protect them from data thieves.
- Hewlett Packard claims that by the year 2011 that its printers will use 40% less energy than they do today.
- Hewlett Packard announced 0% interest lease programs to boost sales of its printers and MFPs.
- Microsoft, in an effort to increase sales, announced it will open Microsoft stores in the U.S., just like Apple Computer has done. Also considering this supposedly is Hewlett Packard.
- BERTL recently completed a test of the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO 1050e, and gave it the coveted “5 Star” award. The report can be purchased at www.BERTL.com. Example of review includes this statement; “BERTL was impressed with the system’s steel paper drawers, which we found to be very sturdily constructed – a key advantage for high volume applications”
- Oce’ announced it will sell its paper making division to Precision Paper Company. Oce’ will sell its plants in Guilford, CT, Charleston, IL and Corona, CA. Purchase price not announced.
- Screen Corp. of Israel announced it has sold one of its TruePress Jet520 high speed color inkjet systems to Total Printing Systems of Newton, IL.
- This printshop, with 47 employees, occupies 32,000 square feet.
- Founded in 1973 by Richard & Wendy Lindemann
- Prints 30,000 million b/w per month
- Prints 700,000 color per month
- Hopes to capture 2 million color pages per month with the TruePress by offering on-demand book publishing
- Panasonic cut 15,000 employees in the U.S. in a cost cutting move. Apparently, this will impact Panasonic copier dealers as well:
- Many of its dealers were notified that there were now considered “Resellers” and will have to buy from distributors instead of directly from Panasonic.
- Authorized distributors apparently include NuWorld, Parrot and New Wave.
- Machines, parts, supplies and support apparently will come from these distributors
- Panasonic launched a new desktop color laser AOI (all-in-one mfp) offering, called the KX-MC6000 series:
- 20ppm top speed
- 4 tandem OPC drum design
- A4 (letter/legal size only)
- Scan/copy/print/fax
- 50 sheet document feeder
- Optional automatic duplexer
- 3.6” full color LCD display
- 1200x1200dpi (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)
- Can receive faxes into memory, and then preview them on the LCD
- Pricing not announced
- optional extended warranties do not include supplies
- In Japan, Panasonic has requested that 10,000 of its employees go out and buy 1,000 yen worth of Panasonic electronic items to boost company revenues.
- The Japanese government eased its regulations required the use of recycled paper. Government agencies now only have to use 70% recycled paper. The reason given for the change was that there is not enough recycled paper being produced to satisfy the new demand.
- Some involved with the construction of Canon manufacturing plants in China are involved with scandal. Norihisa Oga, president of Oita, Japan based Daiko Contracting, demanded and received millions of yen from another contractor, Nichimatsu, after winning contracts to build plants in Hiratsuka. Major construction firm Kajima Corp. is suspected to have provided Daiko billions in yen in return for securing Canon contracts.
- Okidata announced that it plans on launching more floor standing A3 color LED MFPs during the ITEX trade show.
- Kyocera announced that it will bring 15 new MFP models to market in 2009, most of which will be color laser devices. The company also announced the formation of a dealer council, which will be led by Jim Oricchio, owner of Coordinated Business Systems.
- Ricoh sent out notice to its dealers that it plans on increasing its pricing on 3/1/2009 be as much as 5%. The reason given is the changing disparity between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar.
- Ricoh announced it will resell DocuLex Archive Studio content management solution software. Packages for 10 users start at $11,994.00 MSRP.
- Ricoh showed its embedded software capabilities at the recent IBM Pulse conference in Las Vegas. Their booth showed IBM’s Tivoli Asset Management software running on the control panel of a Ricoh color MFP.
- Lexmark now shipping its T650 series of A4 b/w MFPs that offer speeds up to 53ppm. While the MSRPs start as low as $2500, the optional extended warranties do not include the expensive supplies. The black toner cartridge, with a yield of 36,000 pages, based on 5% coverage per page, sells for $508.20 each.
- Another reason why companies should use direct mail. Studies have shown that the average cost to take an inbound call to answer a product question is $16.00. According to Xeikon, which conducted the study, sending our informative newsletters will reduce inbound customer question calls by 30%.
- US Express Leasing has changed its name to Tygris Vendor Finance and has offices in Chicago, Stamford and Parsippany.
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