Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
11-15-09
- According to InfoTrends, the following are projections:
- Compound annual growth rate for U.S. color MFP and single-function printer placements will be
12% through 2012
- Growth for b/w MFP and printer placements will decline 2.3%
- By 2012, color will account for 39% of devices
- Hewlett Packard reported info on its fourth quarter financials:
- Revenue down 8%
- Revenue estimate for fiscal year of $119 billion
- MFP/printer division revenue dropped 20% to $5.7 billion
- Printer shipments dropped 23%
- Hewlett Packard has agreed to reduce its claim against bankrupt Circuit City to only $70.5 million.
- Hewlett Packard announced it will spend $2.7 billion to acquire 3Com Corp. Details:
- will now compete head to head with Cisco for network switching and routing equipment
- 3Com was founded in 1979 by Bob Metcalfe, and retired in 1990
- Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet, while working for Xerox
- ship the first Ethernet adaptor in 1981
- 3Com sold its first PC Ethernet in 1982
- becomes world’s largest manufacturer of network interface cards (NICs)
- Hewlett Packard announced it won a managed print services contract from Leighton Contractors of Australia. Leighton employs 9,000 people in Australia and New Zealand. HP will reduce the fleet from a seven-to-one user to printer ratio to 10-to-one.
- Kyocera apparently has chosen to use PrintFleet software for its KYOfleetmanager managed print services program.
- Intel agreed to pay AMD a whopping $1.25 billion to settle an anti-trust lawsuit filed against the company by AMD.
- More details on the high speed color inkjet presses from Kodak:
- called the Versamark series
- was originally started by Kodak, who sold technology to Scitex of Israel
- Kodak reacquired the division in 2004
- Uses continuous inkjet technology, where ink droplets are continually ejected and are steered to or away form the paper using electrostatic forces
- Versamark VT3000 and VX5000 have top speed of 3080ppm
- Versamark VL2000 offers 75 meters per minute at 600 x 600dpi
- Versamark VL4000 offers 125 meters per minute at 600 x 360dpi
- Versamark VL6000 offers 150 meters per minute at 600 x 600dpi (4 bit)
- Kodak announced it is reducing its staff in British Columbia and shifting work to Israel. This will reduce the Canadian staff from 1265 to 500. The Canadian office was part of the $980 million acquisition of Creo in 2005. Also, Kodak sold some of its office space in the area for $43 million.
- Ricoh announced that it has sold an Aficio C900 production color system to GAM Printers, a print shop in Sterling, Virginia.
- Ricoh announced it is forming a Business Process Automation Group, as part of its Document Solutions & Services Division. “BPA is a true value-add for Ricoh customers because we’re able to offer a suite of services from consultation to sales to implementation under one roof” said Mark Miller, Senior VP & Deputy General Manager at Ricoh. Ricoh’s BPA consultants will “assist customers in turning their current processes into turnkey solutions to fit their workflow requirements”
- X-Rite, maker of color measuring devices, and Pantone color systems, announced its last quarter’s financials:
- net loss of $9 million
- net sales down 25.6% to $45.6 million
- operating income of $1.6 million
- X-Rite, which recently launched Pantone color software for the Apple iPhone, called “myPANTONE”, had the software tested by the Flemish Center for Graphic Communication. The research firm found that when it viewed certain Pantone colors on several iPhones, that each one had a different shade of color. (there is currently no way to calibrate the screen of an iPhone)
- After being acquired by Nuance Corp. last week, eCopy has laid off a portion of its staff. Details:
- Richard Mack, VP of Corp. Communications, stated that less then one-third of staff was affected.
- Any layoff larger than that would have triggered the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies to provide advance notice of a mass layoff.
- Before layoffs, eCopy had 220 employees
- some of jobs will be transferred to Budapest, Hungary, where Nuance has office
- Nuance has 6,000 employees worldwide in 30 offices
- eCopy was started by a handful of people working out of Edward Schmid’s condominium in 1990, and was originally called Simplify Development Corp.
- Nuance, through its OmniPage division, provides OCR software to OmTool
- Tech Data Corp., a leading IT products distributor, announced a new Healthcare Specialized Business Unit to assist its computer resellers (VARs) meet growing demand in this vertical market:
- healthcare industry will spend $81 billion on IT in 2010, according to Gartner
- $22.8 billion will be spent on healthcare IT over next 6 years according to INPUT Research using federal funds from American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
- Department of Veterans Affairs has 2010 budget of $3.3 billion in IT spending
- American TonerServ, provider of generic laser print cartridges in Santa Rosa, CA, reported a 192% increase in last quarter’s revenue.
- Xerox scientists have developed a new coating to extend the life of organic photoreceptors (OPC drums). The new “armor” can extend the life of the drum by 33%. Goal is to improve the coating so that drums could last the life of the copier.
- Xerox announced it won a managed print services contract from Ingersoll Rand, a diversified industrial firm. Details:
- will supposedly save the customer millions over the life of contract
- contract is for 9 years
- reduce operational costs by 30%
- will also apply to the Trane division, acquired in June of 2008
- Xerox announced more modules for its ProfitAccelerator package. This package is an option that Xerox sales reps offer to customer who purchase production color devices, so that they now how to market and sell the output from their devices. The new modules are:
- Print on Demand Initiative (PODi) Customer Case Study Kit, has 105 actual variable data samples from 15 different industries
- Vertical Market Industry Kit Volume 1 offers 120 different samples from market segments; automotive, banking, healthcare, hospitality, insurance, real estate, retail, securities and investments
- Marketing4Digital (from PIA/GATF) Volume 5 provides introduction into trends and opportunities in print industry across a range of different markets.
- Customizable Calendars Print Kit
- Highlight Color Systems Samples Print Kit (for the DocuTech 128/155/180 series that uses black and spot color toner instead of CMYK)
- Sports Marketing Application contains overview and samples of a cross media
sports marketing campaign
- Xerox announced it purchased one of its largest dealers, Mr. Copy, which is headquartered in San Diego, CA. Former owner, Bob Leone, will stay one, and plans to add 30 more employees. Details:
- Started the Xerox agency in 1994
- Last year reported $44 million revenue
- Has 130 current employees
- purchase price not disclosed
- Offices in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Oakland, Silicon Valley, Reno, Portland and Eugene.
- When asked for reason for his success, Mr. Leone said:
- “We just plain outwork and out-hustle the competition”
- “This is not the place to work if you’re not a performer”
- “We measure activity and we measure results”
- “If you are not driver, you’re not going to last here”
- “We spend a lot of time training our people”
- “You can’t train attitude”
- Dell launched three new printers, with the following features:
- All are made by Fuji of Japan (which makes most Xerox copiers and printers)
- Dell 5130cdn is 47ppm A4 top speed full color laser printer for $1549 base MSRP
- 4 tandem OPC drum design
- polymerized toner
- optional paper drawers can make unit floor standing
- optional hanging stapler finisher
- unit’s exterior is dark grey plastic
- 8.5 second first print out time
- 1200x1200dpi
- 800MHz processor
- PCL and PostScript print drivers
- supports up to 216gsm paper weight
- auto duplex up to 163gsm
- Dell 7130cdn is A3 speed LED color printer for $2700 base MSRP (Xerox sells an MFP version)
- Dell 3330dn is 40ppm A4 b/w laser printer for $599 base MSRP
- In an effort to reduce costs, Colorado State University in Boulder, CO, announced it is closing its central reproduction department or campus printshop.
- Adobe Systems announced that it will layoff 9% of its workforce to cut costs. This will amount roughly 600 of its current 7,000 workers.
- Sun Microsystems announced it will layoff 128 workers at its Broomfield, Colorado campus. Oracle Corp. is attempting to buy Sun, but acquisition is being held up by European Union over antitrust concerns.
- Samsung of Korea lost a lawsuit to Sharp. Sharp’s lawsuit claimed that Samsung violated 4 of Sharp’s color LCD manufacturing patents.
- A report released by Samsung reveals that 83% of companies surveyed are not implementing basic technologies to reduce the volume of printed materials. Other findings:
- only 11% use a solution to track amount of pages printed
- over half of all document output costs are associated with purchasing paper and toner
- 69% of workers still prefer paper printouts
- A consortium of inkjet manufacturers have donated money to Cambridge University of London, England, to pursue development of a robust single pass production color printing system.
- Duplo, maker of duplicators, and finishing systems, announced it will create a sub brand, called Duplo Digital, to emphasize its finishing systems that are fully digital. (the company also sells relabeled Sharp digital b/w copiers)
- Heidelberg, the world’s largest offset press maker, announced its last quarter’s financials:
- operating loss of 110 to 150 million euros ($165-$225 million) predicted for the fiscal year
- 65 million euro loss for quarter
- Received more than 800 million euros in emergency state (Germany) aid
- secured a new 1.4 billion euro credit line backed by German government
- order backlog was down 50%
- has laid off a total of 2,400 employees in last year
- Two men were arrested in Eugene, Oregon for making counterfeit money with a color copier. Nicholas Pisciotta and Joseph Ulchinsky are facing forgery charges after police found a stash of fake $20 bills.
- Street pricing recently seen in the print for pay market:
- Ricoh Aficio PRO C900 with external Fiery/booklet-maker/stapling finisher/hole-punch/LCT for $83,400. Color clicks for $0.045 and b/w clicks for $0.015. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/FreeFlow controller/LCT/booklet-maker for $42,200. Color clicks for $0.049 and b/w clicks for $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- Xerox 4112 production b/w system w/external Fiery/booklet-maker/LCT for $41,400. B/w clicks at $0.0061. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- According to survey, the average selling price of a b/w copy in a printshop is now 4.5 cents.
- Brother is now shipping a new desktop AIO, the MFC-8380DN featuring:
- Copy/print/fax/scan
- 30ppm top speed b/w only
- Auto duplex standard
- 1200x1200dpi
- 50 sheet stack bypass
- 250 sheet paper drawer
- 20 sheet document feeder
- Built-in print controller
- 64MB RAM
- Fax board standard
- 25-400% reduction and enlargement
- Scan to email, scan to file, scan to USB
- Comes with OCR software
- 10/100BaseT & USB ports
- EFI lost a lawsuit it filed against Leggett & Platt over supposed patent infringement regarding wide format color inkjet printers. EFI claimed that the company’s patent on UV ink curing was invalid.
- Canon announced it has hired John Hamm, former owner of Balmar Printing of Washington, to develop content for Canon’s imagePRESS Essential Business Builder Program. This is Canon’s option that can be sold to customers of Canon production color system to assist them in marketing and selling the output.
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