WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
3-1-08
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.
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- In order to prop up its capital base, Toshiba announced that it plans on raising $300 billion dollars by selling more stock. This undoubtedly will reduce the value of its current stock, and upset its current shareholders. Its capital adequacy ratio, which measures its financial health, dwindled from 17.2% to 11.9%. This low rating causes financial institutions to raise the interest rates it charges for loans to these companies.
- Toshiba, at the Yokohama Flat Panel Display International show in Japan, showed a prototype of HDTV wallpaper, where television images were displayed on an entire wall. The wall was covered with OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology. Toshiba said the technology could also be used just for lighting, negating the need for overhead fluorescent fixtures to provide lighting at work. Unknown when Toshiba will actually start selling these products.
- Toshiba announced two new color MFPs, the eSTUDIO 5530C and 7030C. Details:
- These units are actually made by Ricoh (are relabeled Aficio color MFPs)(this is odd as Toshiba just introduced three new color MFPs in the same speed range that they actually make)
- Replace the existing Toshiba eSTUDIO 4500C & 5500C models (which were also made by Ricoh)
- 5530C offers 55ppm color and 60ppm b/w
- 7030C offers 70ppm color and 75ppm b/w
- Configuration and pricing info same as what Ricoh offers
- Toshiba announced it won a bid to build two different nuclear reactors in the state of Texas. Expected completion in the year 2016.
- Toshiba settled a class action lawsuit that was brought by 265,000 end users who purchased a Toshiba HDTV set. The suit charged that the DLP bulbs failed prematurely, forcing customers to spend hundreds of dollars to repair.
- Street pricing seen recently on Sharp MC-M550N, a 55ppm b/w copier configured with:
- 150 sheet document feeder
- 3,100 sheet paper supply
- Auto duplex
- Print/scan controller
- Stapling finisher
- $10,300.00
- B/w clicks for $0.0068 with no minimums
- Hewlett Packard announced it plans on raising money by selling bonds, possibly up to $500 million or more.
- Ricoh announced it is now offering a version of the Aficio PRO C900 that can copy and scan. The print only model is the C900 and the MFP version is the C900s. The base MSRP for the C900s is $136,500.00. The company apparently is also planning a slower, less expensive version to bring to market later this year. All these engines apparently use old pulverized toner technology. (some sources also say that even fusing oil is used in the engine)
- Arthur Rose, who received a $3500 bribe from a Ricoh rep to award a copier bid, was sentenced to state prison in New York. The copier bid in question was for a public school district, where Mr. Rose was an official.
- Ricoh is preparing to launch new b/w laser MFPs. Details:
- will replace the existing Aficio MP6000, MP7000 & MP8000 models
- new models are MP6001, MP7501, MP8001 & MP9001
- 60, 75, 80 & 90ppm top speed b/w respectively
- All based on the “Martini’ departmental design (not production print models)
- The existing MP9000, based on the “Katana” engine, is a production print model, and will sell for more than the MP9001, even though it has a lesser model number
- All include a high-speed document feeder that can scan both sides of original at the same time, and can also scan in color, even though the unit only prints in b/w
- Top scan speed of 80opm in b/w and 55opm in color when scanning one side
- When using two-sided mode, speed slows down to 65ipm in b/w and 45ipm in color
- Expected base MSRPs of $28K, $35K and $40K
- Xerox now offering an optional embedded software application, DocuShare Express, for simple scan and store features using the control panel of some of its Fuji-made MFPs.
- Xerox announced it will sell 200 acres it owns next to its facilities in Rochester, NY, to raise cash. It currently owns $1.4 billion is such assets worldwide.
- In an article that appear in The Wall Street Journal, Xerox’s Steve Cronin, stated that the company is focused on growing its managed print services businesses. He claims that revenue from MPS will jump to $15.7 million this year. Currently, the company has 1.5 million devices that are managed, and more than half are other brands besides Xerox.
- John Kelly, head of the North America services unit of Xerox, is seeking to buy makers of software that helps tailor advertising to consumers, also known as enterprise marketing. Even while sales and revenues are down, the company has $1.2 billion in cash at end of 2008.
- Xerox launched two new color laser desktop products. Details:
- actually made by Fuji of Japan
- both are A4 (letter and legal only)
- Phaser 6280 for $449 MSRP, has 26ppm color and 31ppm b/w
- 4 tandem OPC drum design
- Up to 950 sheet paper supply
- 600x600dpi
- 4 bits per pixels
- PostScript & PCL print drivers
- 400MHz processor
- Optional 40GB hard drive
- Uses polymerized toner
- Advertised as offering a cost per page of $0.027 for b/w and $0.139 for color based on 5% coverage of each toner
- Phaser 6128mfp has base MSRP of $599
- 12ppm color speed, 16ppm b/w speed
- 35 sheet document feeder
- 384MB RAM
- PCL print driver only
- Print/copy/scan/fax
- 600x600dpi
- 4 bits per pixel
- Mark Hurd, CEO of Hewlett Packard, apparently plans on cutting the base pay of all HP employees. This includes Mr. Hurd, who reportedly is taking a reduction of 20%. The cuts will range from 5% for office stafff to 20% maximum for upper level executives.
- IKON announced it won a bid for 32 copiers for the City of Gadsden, Alabama. The contract is 48 month lease, for $4898.63 per month.
- EFI launched the new version 8.0 of its MicroPress print server:
- natively processes PostScript, PDF and XPS formats
- supports 64 bit functionality
- can manage up to 12 digital print engines
- supports bleed edge tabs, tabs with images, tabs background color and 2 lines on tab
- insert and replace scanned images in an existing document
- new page tree interface to quickly change paper type
- auto rotate and auto centering of pages
- OCR mode now allows reading of scanned tabs
- Support for Pantone GOE spot colors
- Nuance Corp., maker of OmniPage OCR & ScanSoft software, announced it has purchased Zi Corp., which owns mobile search technology.
- Printronix Inc., announced it will move its printer manufacturing from Irvine, CA to Nogales, Mexico to but costs.
- Sharp announced it will use Compass Sales Solutions as its managed print services solution to market through its branches and dealers.
- Sharp provided more details in its plan for “open distribution” of its Frontier series of A4 color laser MFPs. While the “MX” versions will be sold by Sharp factory direct branches and Sharp authorized dealers, the “DX” branded version will be sold by office equipment distributors. This means that non-Sharp authorized copier dealers will be able to sell the “DX” versions and compete against Sharp dealers that sell the “MX” versions. The cartridges will be keyed differently, preventing a “DX” toner cartridge from being used in a “MX” model.
- Sharp also announced that it will NOT offer print-only versions of the Frontier series color laser MFPs. This is a change in stance, as the company most likely will continue to relabel desktop color page printers from Okidata instead of making its own.
- The next addition to the A4 “Frontier” series from Sharp will be a 40ppm b/w device, but it will still have a large color LCD display like the color laser models.
- Sharp announced that Sagem of France will relabel some of its mid-range b/w laser MFPs for the French market. For example, the Sharp MX-M350 will be called the Sagem MF9735. Sagem announced it will also sell Xerox’ branded desktop fax machines. Sagem, a phone service and equipment provider, is now owned by U.S. investors.
- Sharp debuted new A3 color laser MFPs to replace the MX-3500N, MX-3501N & MX-4501N.
- new models are the MX-4100N, MX-4101N & MX-5001N
- offer OSA, or the ability to use optional embedded software applications (must buy two $349 modules to get this to work)
- 41ppm, 41ppm and 50ppm top speeds respectively
- Base MSRPs of $15,995, $16,495 & $19,095
- Use Sharp micro-fine pulverized toner
- Black toner yield of 36,000 pages
- Color toner yields of only 15,000 pages
- Black developer yield of 150,000 pages
- Color developers yield of 100,000 pages
- Black drum yield of 150,000 pages
- Color drums yield 100,000 pages
- 150K/month maximum duty cycle
- 120 second warmup time
- Have textured plastic outside body with chrome accents (like the Sharp Frontier series)
- 8.5” color LCD display
- Retractable keyboard for data entry
- Optional 4,000 sheet multi-position stapling finisher for $2895 (requires $425 bridge unit)
- Optional booklet making finisher for $2895
- Optional internal stapling finisher for $1795
- $698 for hole punch unit
- Must buy a $120 exit tray to print on 12”x18”
- Handles up to 110lb. index
- Comes standard with two 500 sheet paper drawers and 100 sheet bypass
- Auto duplex standard
- $845 for another 500 sheet drawer and storage
- $1075 for two more 500 sheet drawers
- $1495 for side mount paper deck that holds up to 3500 sheet of letter size paper
- On the MX-4101N & MX-5001N, come standard with document feeder holds up to 150 originals that scans both sides of the original at the same time. Top scan speed of 70opm in single sided mode
- On the MX-4001N, document feeder holds up to 100 sheets, with top speed of 50opm scan speed
- Built-in print controller features 800MHz, 80GB hard drive and 1GB RAM
- USB port on front for printing and scanning from USB thumb drive
- PCL print driver standard.
- $745 for PostScript print driver
- $1125 for XPS print driver
- $549 for data security kit
- $1230 for compressed PDF scanning
- $1295 for optional fax board
- Microsoft filed a patent infringement suit against TomTom, over its GPS devices. It claims that three of its patents have been used without its permission.
- A school district in Michigan decides to buy a brand new laser printer for every teacher in the district. Lapeer Community Schools board members voted to buy 380 printers, even though they are faced with a $3.5 million revenue shortfall. “This will make things more efficient” said board member, Peggy Bush. Unknown who will pay for all the cartridges that the printers will use.
- Lexmark is offering a free download tool to add to Microsoft Internet Explorer, called “Lexmark Toolbar”. It works with any printer, and allows end user to:
- Print only in b/w
- Choose to print only text on a page
- Schedule to regularly print a specific Web page at a specific time and day of the week
- Print only certain portions of the web page
- Lexmark announced that it has renewed its relationship with Dell Computer, meaning that Dell will continue to relabel inkjet and laser engines from Lexmark.
- Canon announced that on some of its MFP models, end users can add a standard 101 key keyboard, for easier data entry.
- Canon announced it is extending its partnership with the New York Yankees baseball team. It will include signage on the left field wall.
- Canon launched a new b/w laser MFP, the imageRUNNER 5050N offering:
- 50ppm top speed
- Base MSRP of $14,000
- Built-in print controller includes PCL print driver, 40GB hard drive and 1GB RAM
- Optional PostScript print driver for $900
- Supports MEAP, allowing for embedded software applications
- $1000 for Web Access, allowing surfing of Internet on control panel
- $325 for hard drive data erase kit
- $1100 Universal Send option required for scanning
- $900 for searchable PDF scanning
- $900 for PDF scan encryption
- $1000 for fax board
- Optional $7950 EFI Fiery print controller
- Two 550 sheet paper drawers, two 1500 sheet letter drawers and 50 sheet bypass standard
- 100 sheet document feeder with top scan speed of 65opm
- $3000 for side mount 3500 sheet paper deck
- $3000 for multiposition stapling finisher, staples 50 sheets
- $5300 for booklet making finisher
- $850 for hole punch kit
- $2200 for cover insertion unit
- $8000 for cover inserter/paper fold unit
- Uses ceramic amorphous silicon drum with life of 3 million pages ($1630 to replace if scratched)
- 48,000 page yield for black toner
- Canon announced it won the “Center of Excellence” award from Purdue University for its technical support to dealers.
- Travis Ayers, Richard Johnson & Mark King were sentenced to jail time for making fake dollar bills with a color copier in Greensville, NC.
- Sony Corp.’s president, Ryoji Chubachi, will step down from his post on 4/1/2009 amid sharp downturn in revenue and earings.
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