WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
3-22-09
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.
Recently, the 35th birthday passed for invention of Ethernet (the technology to connect computers, printers and peripherals):
- Invented by Bob Metcalfe while working at Xerox on 5/22/1973
- He went to work at Xerox when some Harvard professors failed his PhD thesis, which involved hooking up the university to Arpanet, a network that one day would evolve into modern Internet.
- Came up with the name “Ethernet” from the 1800s when American physicists Albert Michelson & Edward Morley disproved the then accept belief that light traveled through an invisible medium known as the “luminiferous ether”
- First two computers hooked together were named “Michelson” and “Morley”
- Metcalfe quit Xerox to start 3Com, and forged alliance with DEC and Intel in 1980.
- 1985, Ethernet became standard known as IEEE 802.3, beating out rival technology from IBM called Token Ring
- In 2008, over 350 million Ethernet switch ports were sold
- Mr. Metcalfe is now a retired venture capitalist due to the fortune he made
Brother Corp. of Japan announced that for the first time in 9 years, it will cut its spending on research and development due to slow sales.
Hewlett Packard announced it will temporarily shut down its Indigo production color system plant in Kiryat Gat, Israel for up to three months. There is a concern that the shut down may be permanent according to Israel newspaper, GLOBES.
Competing against the new Canon imageRUNNER 7095? Remember these weaknesses:
- while it is advertised as offering top speed of 95ppm, the ledger size speed is a slow 49ppm
- the paper drawers and bypass can only handle up to 110lb. index (not suitable for postcards
or heavy covers)
- Maximum paper size of only 11”x17”, so can not do a full bleed tabloid sheet
- The document feeder runs at only 85ppm
- The optional booklet maker costs a whopping $10,500.00
- Toner yield is only 47,000 pages based on 6% coverage per letter size page
- Print controller does NOT offer gigabit 1000BaseT Ethernet connection
- Processor speed of only 533MHz on standard controller
- Scan to e-mail is an expensive option called “Universal Send”
Gartner announced that in 2008, Canon had 21% marketshare of the copier market, making it the leading vendor. (This data was recorded before impact of Ricoh’s acquisition of IKON, which was Canon’s largest distributor)
Canon announced that it has sold an imagePRESS C6000 production color system to a Century 21 Real Estate office in Chicago, where it will be used to produce marketing materials and color postcards.
Canon announced it has authorized Agfa Graphics to resell its imagePRESS production color systems to increase sales to graphic arts markets.
Canon announced it has authorized Heritage Business Systems as a full line Canon MFP dealer in Morristown, NJ.
Competing against the new Ricoh Aficio PRO 906EX? Remember these weaknesses:
- While advertised as offering top speed of 90ppm, ledger speed is a slow 45ppm
- Drawers can handle up to 80lb. cover only
- Bypass can handle up to 110lb. index only
- Document feeder runs at a slow 80ppm and can not handle thick stock
- Booklet maker is an expensive $7360.00
- Developer yield is only 500,000 pages
- Toner yield is only 60,000 pages based on 6% coverage
- Processor speed of only 866MHz in standard controller
- PostScript print driver is an expensive option
- Stack sheet bypass is a $1400 option
Ricoh launched new print-only laser engines:
- SP-C821DN offers 50ppm A3 top color speed (print only version of Ricoh color copier)
- SP-C820DN offers 40ppm A3 top color speed (print only version of Ricoh color copier)
- SP-4210N offers 36ppm A4 top b/w speed
- SP-4100NL offers 31ppm A4 top b/w speed
Competing against the new Sharp MX-M950? Remember these weaknesses:
- Maximum monthly volume rating of only 500,000 per month
- Stack sheet bypass is a $1675 option
- Booklet maker is $7050.00 option
- Developer yield is only 500,000 pages maximum
- Print controller does not offer gigabit 1000BaseT Ethernet connection
- PostScript print driver is an expensive option
Sharp announced it will reduce its annual factory workers bonuses from 5 weeks pay to 4.
Sharp announced it will offer an embedded scan/OCR software for its copier from X-Solutions of the Netherlands, called “SimplifyScan”. Pricing not announced.
Xerox cut its forecast for first quarter profit nearly 80% due to a slowdown in technology spending.
Xerox announced that it is replacing the person in charge of its global marketing. Quincy Allen is out, and replaced by Eric Armour, the new President of Global Business & Strategic Marketing Group.
Competing against the new Xerox 4595 production b/w system? Remember these weaknesses:
- Maximum monthly volume rating of only 500,000 pages
- Drawers handle up to 80lb. cover stock only
- Bypass handles up to 110lb. index only
- Booklet maker is an expensive $11,800 option
- Drum yield of only 505,000 pages
- Print controller does not have a gigabit 1000BaseT Ethernet connection
- Processor speed is only 750MHz
In order to cut costs amidst declining revenues, Xerox announced it is suspending the 401K match, starting a hiring freeze, and postponed salary increases in 2009. It will also cut back on travel, end use of outside consultants and overtime. It hopes these actions will save the company $300 million. Its stock price sank to $4.34 per share.
Xerox announced it sold an iGen4 production color system to Gabriel Group, a printshop in St. Louis, MO.
Lexmark, in an effort to boost laser printer/MFP sales after is lost its large distributor Circuit City to bankruptcy, announced it had struck deals to have its products on display at Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Fry’s Electronics & Micro Center.
Springboard Research predicts that managed print services sales in Asia will grow from $392 million to $1 billion in 2012.
Hitachi announced that its current president, Kazuo Furukawa, will step down and be replaced by Takashi Kawamura.
Okidata launched new color MFPs at the ITEX show in Las Vegas. Details:
- CX2640 features 26ppm color and 40ppm b/w with A3 engine
- CX1145 is actually a relabeled Toshiba-made eSTUDIO 451C
- CX2033 is a desktop A4 model at 20ppm
Microsoft signed an agreement with Lexmark allowing the companies to share patents for future products.
Gartner reported data on sales of office equipment for 2008 and revealed:
- total shipments down 5.9% in 2008, as compared with 2.9% growth in 2007
- 20.8% decline in total MFP sales
- 13.2% growth in color MFP sales
- Page printers down 28.5%
- b/w printer sales down 29.9%
- color printer sales down 23.5%
- HP sales down 23.3%
- expects no increase until 2010
North Carolina State University is working on a special inkjet printer, emitting glue produced by marine mussels, to spray on patients to speed up healing after surgery.
As a result of huge losses, Toshiba Corp. announced it will replace its top executive. Atsutoshi Nishida is out, and replaced by Norio Sasaki, who ran the company’s nuclear division. He inherits the task of turning around a $68 billion behemoth that makes everything from memory chips, mobile phones, refrigerators, nuclear reactors, medical CT scanners, elevators, and copiers.
Toshiba announced it will partner with Atomenergoprom Corp. of Russia to build a nuclear enrichment plant in Japan.
Oce’ announced it is shipping two new high speed color inkjet production systems, the JetStream 500 (505ppm) and the JetStream 1000 (1070ppm). Pricing not announced.
Oce’ now shipping the ColorStream 9000 color laser production system, running at 168ppm. Pricing not announced.
According to a survey of executives conducted by Access Markets International Partners (AMI), 77% of midsize businesses, and 47% of small sized businesses in the U.S. acknowledge that their companies will take measures to reduce office printing costs in 2009.
According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM will buy Sun Microsystems for $6.5 billion.
Samsung of Korea announced it has taken steps to stop makers of compatible toner cartridges in the U.S. Investigations have led to the seizure of over 30,000 cartridges worth over $3 million.
An elderly woman in Tennessee accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, causing her Chevy Malibu to crash into a government office and run over their copier.
MWAi and DeLage Landen (DLL) Leasing have announced a partnership. Apparently, if dealers use DLL as their leasing partner for a copier sale, DLL will include MWAi products so that the dealer can access the copier’s meter reading remotely.
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