WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
12-30-07
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.
q Sharp & Samsung in court. Sharp filed a lawsuit in Korea, home of Samsung, claiming Samsung infringed on its LCD flat panel patents. Samsung countersued claiming that Sharp infringed on some of its patents as well.
q Matsu****a, parent of Panasonic, recently dropped its lawsuit against Samsung over plasma TV patents.
q Sharp announced that it will sell its in-house leasing department to Fuyo General Lease Co. of Japan.
q Samsung of Korea announced it will build a laser printer manufacturing plant in Weihai, China.
q Better Buys For Business magazine, in its “Color Copier Guide”, gave out Editors’ Choice Awards to:
o Konica Minolta bizhub C253
o Konica Minolta bizhub C353
o Konica Minolta bizhub C451
o Konica Minolta bizhub C650
o Konica Minolta bizhub C6500
o Canon IR-C5058/5068
o Toshiba 281C/351C/5500C
o Xerox WorkCentre 7132/7232/7242/7328/7675
o Xerox DC-242/252/260
o Oce’ CPS800
o Canon IR-C3380/C4080/C459-/C5185
o Kyocera KM-C2525E/C3225E
o Ricoh Aficio MP-C2500/C3000/C3500/C4500/C5560 (aka Lanier/Savin versions)
o Sharp MX-3501N/4501N/6201N/7001N
q Harold’s Photo Centers, Inc., announced it has acquired Xerox DocuColor 260 systems to produce specialty photo products. The company has 8 stores, and is headquartered in Sioux Falls, SD.
q Xerox unveiled a new software option called; “Intelligent Redaction”, which can automatically remove references to certain items for security reasons. Instead of just encrypting an entire document, it can delete certain items without impacting the integrity of the document for viewing by others. The software’s user interface allows end user to enter data that should be removed, and the software does this automatically, without having to reformat the document.
q Ricoh announced it will relabel low end MFPs from Sagem of France:
o (Konica Minolta also partners with Sagem to make desktop b/w laser MFPs)
o Aficio SP1000SF
§ Base MSRP of $315.00
§ b/w laser copy/print/scan fax
§ desktop design
§ letter/legal size only (A4)
§ 16ppm top speed
§ $108 for b/w toner cartridge with yield of 4000 pages based on 5% coverage
§ 250 sheet paper cassette
§ Single sheet bypass
§ 50 sheet document feeder
§ No auto duplex
§ Scan scan in color or b/w (output is b/w only)
§ USB based print controller
q Canon launched two new models that will be sold by VARs and office supply superstores, the Laser Class 810 and 830i offering:
o Laser Class 810:
§ b/w laser copy/print/fax scan
§ Base MSRPs of $2695
§ 23ppm top speed b/w
§ 19 second warmup time
§ 13 second first copy out time
§ Letter or legal size copy/print only (A4)
§ Optional print controller for $620.00
· imageCHIP
· 10/100BaseT & USB ports
· 192MB RAM
· PC faxing
· Proprietary Canon UFR print driver
§ 64MB RAM
§ No second fax line option
§ Optional 50 sheet document feeder
§ $107 for toner cartridge with yield of 4500 pages based on 5% coverage per page
§ Come standard with one 500 sheet drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass
§ Auto duplex standard
§ Add second 500 sheet drawer for $340.00
o Laser Class 830i is same as 810 plus:
§ comes with document feeder
§ print controller standard with HP PCL emulation
§ can scan to e-mail and network, but no LDAP
§ color scanning standard (output is b/w only)
§ can scan a 11”x17” document (even though it will print that size)
§ MSRP of $2995.00
§ 256MB RAM
q More details on the new Canon imageRUNNER C5058 and C5068, which replace the IR-C5800, C5870, C6800 & C6870 models:
o Still use single OPC drum design, with rotating toner cartridges (aka “2 Bit Toner Spinner”)
o 16ppm top speed color
o 58 and 68ppm top speed b/w
o Letter/legal/ledger (A3)
o Canon reps will position this as a heavy duty b/w copier/MFP that can also do “convenience color”. However, due to the design using spinning toner cartridges, this unit will be very unreliable as compared to a b/w only unit (like bizhub 600 or bizhub 750)
o Base MSRPs of $17,600 and $22,000 respectively
o $87 black toner cartridge with yield of 40,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
o $149 for each color toner cartridge with yield of 9500 pages each based on 5% coverage
o $1630 for amorphous silicon ceramic drum with yield of 3,000,000 b/w pages (which is one reason why this unit is not 8 bit, due to the extremely hard surface of the drum which prevents 256 greyscales per dot)
o 1.5GB RAM
o 80GB hard drive
o Generic print controller (most likely made by NetSilicon) for $2000
§ 10/100BaseT & USB ports
§ HP PCL emulation
§ Optional $1000 for PostScript emulation
§ No XPS driver yet available
o Optional embedded EFI Fiery for $4950.00
o MEAP compatible, so end users can add software solutions that can be access through the touch screen color LCD control panel
o Optional PDF compression for scans $1000
o Optional searchable scanned PDFs for $1000
o $900 for PDF security kit
o $325 for hard drive erase kit
o $325 for hard drive encryption kit
o $600 access management kit
o $450 for secure print kit
o $1000 for watermark option
o $800 for barcode printing kit
o $1000 for web kit that allows end users to surf the Internet using the copier control panel
o $1000 for fax board
o Optional 3500 sheet capacity side mount paper deck for $2400
o Optional $3000 stapling finisher
o Optional $5300 booklet maker finisher (up to 15 sheet booklets)
o $850 for hole punch kit
q Xerox announced that future color MFP models will use an LED print head instead of laser to cut costs:
o Models will actually be made by Fuji of Japan
o Advertised as offering 1200x2400dpi (2 or 4 bits per dot)
o LED printhead was developed by Nippon Sheet Glass, using SEFLOC lens array technology
o Uses self-scanning LED heads, or SLED
o Claim that the SLED heads require 1/40 the space of their current laser heads
o Products to use this are the future WorkCentre C2200 and C3300 (model numbers may change) featuring:
§ 4 tandem OPC drum design
§ Polymerized toner (called Xerox EA)
§ 25ppm and 35ppm top speeds respectively, color or b/w
§ Letter/legal/ledger sizes (A3)
§ Base models weigh only 288lbs. which is 20% lighter than current models
§ 7.2 second first color copy out time, 5.4 for b/w
§ 30 second warm up time
§ Optional generic print controller
· Most likely made by Marvell Technology
· 512MB RAM
· 40GB hard drive
· 10/100BaseT & USB ports
· Can print from or scan to a USB memory stick
· HP PCL and PostScript emulations standard
§ Auto duplex
§ Optional internal stapling finisher that fits underneath platen
§ Document feeder has top color scan speed of 45opm
§ Base MSRPs of approximately $11,910 and $14,200
q Sharp is planning on launching the MX-1800N color MFP:
o Based on same platform as existing MX models (aka MX-2300N, etc.)
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o 18ppm top speed b/w or color
o Letter/legal/ledger size (A3)
o Base MSRP of $15,400
o Dual 500 sheet paper drawers standard
o Optional stand provides two more 500 sheet drawers
o 100 sheet stack bypass
o Auto duplex
o 100 sheet RADF
o Optional stapling finisher
o Optional hole punch
o No booklet making
o Comes standard with generic print controller
§ HP PCL emulation
§ 600MHz RISC processor
§ 40GB hard drive
§ 768MB RAM
§ scanning
§ USB & 10/100BaseT ports
§ Can print or scan to USB memory stick
o Monochrome touch screen LCD control panel
o Optional PostScript
o Optional fax
q Muratec apparently plans on launching new b/w MFPs that are actually made by Muratec.
o Previously, Muratec relabeled other engines (like Konica Minolta for example)
o MFX-2200 and MFX-2700
o Use LED b/w engine instead of laser
o 22ppm and 27ppm print speeds
o Letter/legal/ledger sizes (A3)
o Code named “Moscow”
o Base MSRPs of $5670 and $6910
o Optional print controller
o Drum yield of 100,000 pages
o Toner cartridge yield of 20,000 pages based on 5% coverage
o Comes standard with 500 sheet drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass
o Auto duplex
o 50 sheet RADF
o Can add three more 500 sheet drawers
o No optional finishing
q Due to poor sales, Hewlett Packard announced it will no longer sell the LaserJet M5025 which featured:
o 25ppm b/w laser scan/copy/fax/print
o letter/legal/ledger sizes (A3)
o was targeted at traditional copier vendors (i.e. was supposed to compete against bizhub 250)
o HP admits that it has a hard time selling A3 models (those that are floor standing ledger size models that look like traditional copiers)
o Base MSRP was $2999
o Was actually made by Canon
q Kyocera announced new workgroup b/w laser MFPs, the KM-2540, 2560, 3040 and 3060 offering:
o Code name “Stratos”
o Amorphous ceramic silicon drums (life of 3 million impressions)
o Base MSRPs of $5085, $6733, $5945, $7733
o 2540 and 3040 ship as standalone copiers
o Can add print controller for $1200, but can not add scanning
o 2560 and 3060 come with print controllers and scanning
§ 512MB RAM
§ HP PCL and PostScript emulations
§ Made by Peerless Corp.
§ 80GB hard drive
§ 10/100BaseT & USB ports
§ Scan in b/w or color (output is b/w only)
o $1155 for fax board
o $580 for data security kit
o Dual 500 sheet paper drawers and 100 sheet stack bypass
o Add two more 500 sheet drawers for $1286
o Auto duplex
o Monochrome touch screen LCD display
o $1265 for 75 sheet reversing document feeder
o Optional internal stapling finisher for $995
o Optional floor standing stapling finisher for $1400
q JD Power & Associates announced that based on end user satisfaction surveys:
o In Japan, Ricoh MFPs are the favorite
o In China, Kyocera MFPs are the favorite
o End users for the first time viewed color MFPs as more reliable than b/w MFPs
q In a study conducted by Lexmark, only 34% of end users admitted to using the faxing or scanning functions of their MFPs.
- In a study of how office workers use their color MFPs, the following was found:
o Only 20% had their use of color restricted (via account codes or other method)
o 41.8% were using PC to print color, 38.1% were using Mac to print color
o 32.7% were printing proofs in color
o 32.2% were printing text documents
o 28.7% were printing photographs
o 27.5% were printing brochures
o 24% were printing marketing materials
o 16.4% were printing presentations
o 16.4% were printing reports
o 14% were printing spreadsheets
o 52.3% were printing PDFs
o 33.1% were printing from MS Word
o 23.6% were printing from Adobe Photoshop
o 22.7% were printing from QuarkXPress
o 55.5% of prints were in color
o Users of Konica Minolta color MFPs were the most likely to print on heavier weight stocks
o Only 29.9% had the machine’s default set to b/w instead of color
o Most important considerations when buying/leasing a color MFP were on a scale of 1 to 10:
§ 9.5 reliability
§ 9.4 image quality
§ 9.1 print driver
§ 9.0 affordability
§ 9.0 color consistency
§ 9.0 color accuracy
§ 8.9 ease of use
§ 8.8 resolution
§ 8.8 ease of maintenance
§ 8.6 productivity
§ 8.6 controller
§ 8.5 calibration
§ 8.2 cost per color page
§ 8.0 speed
§ 8.0 network compatibility
§ 7.7 cost per b/w page
§ 7.2 paper capacity
§ 7.1 service contract
§ 6.1 scanning
q A college professor filed a legal action against Ricoh. Scott Aaronson, professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, claims that part of one of his lectures was used without his permission in a Ricoh TV ad. As a settlement, $5000 was provided to the professor who donated it to charity.
q Pitney Bowes has yet to find a buyer for its facilities management division, known as PBMS.
o Originally part of Kodak
o Sold to DANKA in 1996
o Sold to Pitney Bowes in 2001 for $291 million
o Annual revenues of roughly $1 billion
o PBMS is DANKA’s largest customer
o Rumored possible buyer of PBMS is Oce’ (which would not be good for DANKA)
q More details from DANKA’s financial statement from last quarter::
o Lost $14.4 million on revenue of $105 million
o 8.5% decline in revenue year over year
o Reported having 120,000 machines in field at end of fiscal 2006
o Placed 4,036 fewer machines in first half compared to last fiscal
o Color represents just 6.1% of total page volume (in contract, Xerox reports 13%)
q Toshiba announced that it will relabel some low end b/w laser MFPs made by Samsung of Korea. (in Korea, Samsung relabels midrange Toshiba b/w and color MFPs)
q Okidata announced it will get rid of 500 employees to cut costs, as it reported a $48.2 million loss.
q In a study of end user’s usage of desktop printers:
o Most printers are acquired without management signoff due to low acquisition cost
o Even if a copier/MFP is acquired, and management removes printers, workers find way to bring them back
o 85% say that printer is located within direct line of site from their workspace/desk
o for those that can’t see their printer, it is still usually less than 20 feet away
o only 2% of those that use desktop color printers have their usage restricted by management
o 90% say that their next printer will be color
o 50% of printers used are not on the network, so are not tracked by management
q Samsung’s former managing director, Kim Yong-chul, is accusing his former employer of bribing judges, prosecutors, & politicians in Korea. He claims the illegal payments came from 100 secret bank accounts, and the payments were labeled as “year-end mochi rice cakes”. A formal investigation has started.
q Epson now shipping the new Stylus Pro series (4880, 7880. 9880 & 11880) of wide format color inkjet printers. Epson claims that the output from these systems is superior to any other inkjet engine because:
o uses proprietary, patented Epson technology
o piezo crystal print heads, instead of thermal bubblejet (used by most other including HP and Canon)
o Called MicroPiezo Thin Film Piezo (TFP)
o Technology emits an electrical signal to the piezo crystal stationed above each ink nozzle, creating a pulse that forces ink droplets from the nozzle
o Allows precise control of the ink droplet size (3.5 picoliter size)
o Piezo film s only 1 micron thick, compared with earlier versions which were 25 microns thick
o Twice as many nozzles as previous engines
o Ink repelling coating technology on print head to prevent clogging
o AccuPhoto HD screening algorithm generates more accurate dot placement to produce photos with less grain
Original Post