Weekend Copier Notes from 05/11/08

WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
5-11-08

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.


- IKON won a service excellence award from the VHA national healthcare alliance for 2008. In an acceptance press release, IKON claims to employ 6,000 technicians in the U.S.

- In a recent filing, IKON listed the following as its largest shareholders:
o Hotchkis And Wiley Capital Management LLC with 12,664,880 shares (just sold 2,313,020 shares)
o Steel Partners II LLP with 12,456,300 shares (has stated that it may try to take over the board of directors later this year to force company to sell out)
o Barclays PLC with 4,208,550
o The following have sold all their IKON stock:
 Advanced Investment Partners LLC
 Albion Financial Group
 Blackrock Inc.
 Bogle Investment Management
 Clarivest Asset Management
 CMG Small Cap Value Fund
 Columbia Asset Allocation Funds
 DLIBJ Asset Management
 Dryden Allocation Fund
 Financial Architects
 FMR Corp.
 Galleon Management
 Global Small Cap Fund
 Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo And Co.
 Hartford Growth Fund
 International Value Series
 Intrust Bank
 Laudus Rsoenberg International
 Legg Mason Inc.
 LYZ Asset Management
 Manufacturers Life Insurance Co.
 Marathon Capital Group
 Mycio Wealth Partners
 Old Mutual Asset Managers
 Pitcairn Group
 Quantitative Mid Cap Fund
 Quantlab Captial Management
 QVT Financial
 Ramsey Quantitative Systems
 RBC Capital Markets
 SA International
 SC Oppenheimer Main Street
 Seasons Capital Management
 Small Cap Special Values
 Small Capitalization Value
 Soros Fund Management
 Stock Index Account
 Systematic Financial Management
 Value Fund
 Wisdomtree

- Desktop color laser printer prices have hit a new low. Samsung now offers the CLP-300 through Staples stores for only $99.98 (after $150 mail-in rebate). As with many inkjet printers, the cost to replace all four toner cartridges costs more than the printer itself ($60 for black, plus three colors for $45 each)

- Tips when competing against Ricoh Aficio C6000 and C7500 color MFPs:
o has separate job queues for copy jobs and print jobs, instead of listing all in one queue, therefore making job management (reorder, or delete) difficult for users
o maximum paper weight from drawers is 80lb. cover stock
o maximum paper weight for bypass is 110lb. cover stock
o the bypass does NOT have automatic paper size detection sensors, so end user must program the paper size manually into the control panel
o when changing paper size in a drawer, end user must unlock and then relock the guides
o while the display does show where a paper jam has occurred, when an area in the machine is cleared, it does not automatically move to the next jam area, instead the end user must press the Next button
o does NOT use toner cartridges, but instead uses clear plastic pouches, which are placed on top of the hopper, and relies on gravity to have toner fall out of flimsy plastic bag into the toner hopper
o because of this, toner can not be added while the machine is running
o standard generic print controller comes standard with HP PCL print driver only
 Adobe PostScript is a $2000 option
• the print driver is completely different from the PCL driver, as it is from a different supplier
• does not have a mixed media mode, so can not use more than one paper source per job
o no help key
o 6 keystrokes to make a booklet, and it is actually called the “magazine” mode
o Paper travels underneath the 4 tandem OPC drums, making paper jam removal difficult, and end user may inadvertently scratch or damage drums when removing jams
o Comments from BLI on image quality:
 “color saturation was below average”
 “output generally not bright enough”
 “smoothness, sharpness and color halftone rage were average”
 “flesh tones were too red”

- Street pricing seen in print for pay market:
o Canon imagePRESS C6000VP w/Fiery/LCT/stacker/booklet-maker for $194,000.00. Color click @ $0.052 and b/w clicks at $0.0125. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Xerox DocuColor 242 w/Fiery for $22,000.00. Color clicks @ $0.059 and b/w clicks @ $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Canon imageRUNNER 7105 w/Fiery/booketmaker/LCT/hole-punch for $34,300.00 with b/w clicks @ $0.0042. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Xerox 4112 w/print controller/bookletmaker for $38,800.00 with b/w clicks @ $0.005 for first 200K, then $0.0039 for overages.

- According to a survey of print shop owners, the bizhub PRO C6500 has the highest amount of copies between service calls, as compared with Xerox & Canon production color systems. Survey conducted by Larry Hunt, and based on 123 responses from across the country. (To purchase a subscription, call 727-781-7825)

- Oce’ launched new software during the Association of Legal Administrators show in Seattle, WA. The new product was called “Oce’ Max”, and offered comprehensive business performance management system, for outsourcing service providers.

- Oce’ announced it has sold a VarioPrint 6250 production b/w system to Alphagraphics location in Seattle, WA. Owner, Chuck Stempler, claims that during first 5 months of install, he ran 11 million impressions with only 4 service calls. The system replaced a Xerox Docutech.

- Oce’ launched the ColorWave 600 wide format color system featuring:
o uses new Oce’ CrystalPoint technology, which melts balls of “tonergel” and sprays onto paper, where it cools and hardens
o the color balls or marbles are called “TonerPearls”
o the prints dry immediately, and are water proof
o can print “E” size sheet in half a minute (12 square feet)
o is result of 150 million Euros spent on R&D
o can use plain paper
o MSRP of $61,500.00

- Sharp announced it will offer software from Apago Inc. as option for its digital MFPs. The Apago ONEticket software provides a universal print driver and uses a virtual job ticket. This provides automation for customers to create a workflow.
- Sharp held its annual dealer convention, and showed 18 future MFP models:
o many were A4 models, meaning that they handle letter/legal size paper only, to compete against similar models from Hewlett Packard
o all new models feature new chrome accents on the exterior
o some models feature 8.5” full color LCD touch screen display control panels while smaller models feature 4.3” diagonal LCD displays
o Two new full size (A3) models, the MX-2600N and MX-3100N feature:
 26ppm and 31ppm top speed b/w or color respectively
 4 tandem OPC drum design
 Polymerized toner
 Built-in retractable QWERTY keyboard for easy date entry
 On-screen image preview
 Built-in print controller
• 10/100/1000BaseT ports
• IPV6 support
• Microsoft Vista XPS support
o Sharp launched a new software division, called Sharp Business Systems integration Group (SBSi)
 Creates single function applications targeted towards specific vertical markets (legal, medical, finance, education, etc.)
 Can playback flash video clips

- Two state officials from Ohio lose their jobs over a copier bid. Details:
o A bid was awarded to Xerox for a $270,000 color copier, even though no competitive bids were allowed.
o Anthony Gutierrez and Edgar Simpson, of the Department of Administrative Services, lost their jobs after an investigation was begun.

- Hewlett Packard announced it has sold 11 Indigo production color systems to Reischling Press Inc. of Tukwila, WA.

- DocuLex Software announced a new entry level scanning and OCR program, DocuLex Office Capture 4.