Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
- Lehigh University of Pennsylvania announced that it is removing all printers from residence halls, fraternity houses, sorority houses to go green
o The students will now use printers in the library
- According to one industry author, the definition of managed print services is; “the act of managing components and processes associated with moving, saving and presenting information in the form of documents”
- Some industry authors are speculating as to the future of RISO, as apparently the company has significantly reduced its staff of its branches in the U.S.
- Lexmark announced a new “Government Solutions” group, to increase its sales to this vertical. It will position itself as a vendor that will help federal agencies “reduce their footprint”.
- Hewlett Packard announced the following executive appointments:
o Thomas Hogan is now executive VP of Sales, Marketing & Strategy for Enterprise Business
o Francesco Serafini is now executive VP of Emerging Markets
o Jan Zadak is now senior VP and managing director Europe/Middle East/Africa
o Richard Geraffo Jr. is senior VP and managing director Americas
o Piau Phang Foo is now senior VP and managing director Asia Pacific/Japan
- Hewlett Packard is being investigated by federal officials in the U.S., Germany & Russia over charges that some HP employees allegedly bribed officials with millions of dollars of cash to win contracts.
- Former Fujitsu President, Kuniaki Nozoe, is filing a 5 billion yen lawsuit against the company, claiming he was forced out due to false charges of mob ties, while the company claims he retired.
- Xerox announced that its new CEO, Ursula Burns, now earns $9.9 million, as compared to $5.6 million last year. Her base salary is now $900,000.00.
- Xerox now shipping the iGen4 220 Perfecting Press selling for $1,212,550.00. This is two iGen4 production color systems bolted together, so that it can produce two-sided color documents at 110 per minute.
- Xerox launched a new eCommerce site for their customers called “Xerox MySupport” offering:
o provided at no charge
o password accessed personal website
o security updates
o newsletters
o support updates
o meter submission
o usage patterns
o meter reads between billings
o export data to create usage reports
o apparently you can NOT place a service call or order supplies using this free portal
- Xerox launched its “ProfitQuick Direct Marketing ROI Planner, another addition to its Profit Accelerator portfolio. These are optional programs that it offers (for a fee) to its production print system customers tools to promote the sale of the output from the devices. This new tool predicts the effectiveness of a direct-mail campaign and provides an ROI assessment. Information provided includes number of mail pieces, cost per piece and revenue per item sold, with on-line calculator.
- Xerox has filed a lawsuit against Google, YouTube and Yahoo claiming that the companies infringed on its patents relating to search technology.
- Greg Carlin and Neil Bluhm announced that they will spend $4454 million to convert an old Xerox building in Chicago into a casino, employing 1,000.
- Loudon County, Virginia police have arrested Dwayne Gresham after he was found to have a number of fake $20 bills in his possession during a traffic stop. A search warrant resulted in the confiscation of a color copier and other fake currency.
- Misty Shelton was arrested by Johnson City, Tennessee police after she was caught making $11,000 in fake $100 bills using a color copier.
- Drytac Inc. announced that it launched the new VersaCoater DocuMate Plus, which they claim can be used to apply UV coating to the output of Konica Minolta bizhub PRO production color systems. The product will be on display in the company’s booth at next week’s OnDemand show in Philadelphia.
- Okidata announced it has opened a new LED print head facility in Takasaki City in Japan.
- Okidata launched two new color LED A4 desktop color printers. The C610 offers 32ppm color (base MSRP of $699) and the C711 offers 34ppm color (base MSRP of $1099).
- Media Sciences announced it has sold its 10 millionth wax stick that is compatible with Xerox Phaser color wax printers.
- Google claims that its future Chrome operating system (which operates in a “Cloud”) will be able to print to any connected device, without needing print drivers. Details on how this will work are very sketchy for now.
- Samsung’s president, Cho Soo-in, denied in public that its factories in Korea are using carcinogens and radioactive rays which are allegedly causing cancer in its employees.
- Gartner reported the following sales of PC computers during last quarter:
o HP = 15.3 million units
o Acer = 12 million units
o Dell = 10.2 million units
o Lenovo = 7 million units
- A firm named Golden Gate Capital has purchased controlling interest in Clover Technologies and West Point Products, both makers of generic print cartridges.
- The organizers of the IPEX trade show of Europe have awarded a “Champions In Print” award to Dan Gelbart, co-founder of Creo (maker of color print servers, now a division of Kodak)
- Ricoh announced it is closing a facility in Irving, Texas, laying off 53 employees.
- Ricoh announced that Gartner’s report shows that it sold more MFPs in the U.S. than any other vendor with a 23.1% marketshare. (this includes IKON)
- Canon announced it has partnered with Hewlett Packard to win a large contract from Fedex Office (formerly known as Kinkos). The contract includes 12,000 output devices, including Canon imagePRESS, Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE and HP DesignJet printers. The devices will be deployed in 1,800 Fedex Office print for pay locations, and replace a huge fleet of Xerox equipment.
- Software maker, Oracle Corp., announced it will spend $685 million to purchase Phase Forward, which makes pharmaceutical data software for the healthcare industry.
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