Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
11-28-2010
- Okidata reports financial data:
o Worldwide hardcopy revenue declined 12% in first half of 2010 to only $675 million
o Operating loss of $34 million for first half of fiscal year
o Printer revenue down 22% as compared with 2006
o Printer revenue is 33% of total company
- The Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA) announced that U.S. businesses originated $4.9 billion in leases and loans to invest in capital equipment (which includes MFPs), which is up 14% from this time last year.
o 2.95% of borrowers were delinquent 30 days or more, down 3.41%
o Lenders in October considered just 1.2% of the loans in their portfolios as losses unlikely ever to be paid, down 1.7%
o 73% of all credit applications were approved, up from 72% last year
- Epson announced that in Europe, it will relabel desktop b/w laser AIOs from Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company). In addition, Epson sold its printer R&D unit in the Philippines to Kyocera.
- Epson announced it celebrated its 20th anniversary of launching piezo crystal inkjet technology:
o competes with technology used by HP and Canon, known as thermal inkjet, that uses heat to vaporize liquid water-based ink and fire it through printhead nozzles
o Instead uses mechanical pressure generated by a piezoelectric element when an electric current is applied to push droplets through nozzle
o Developed by current Epson president, Minoru Usui
o Is division of Seiko, the watchmaker.
After launching its first dot matrix printer in 1968, the EP101, Seiko Corp. decided on the name “Epson” in 1975 as the division was the son of the EP printer.
o First printer to use technology was the Epson Stylus 800 in 1993
o Technology superior as it produces more precise ink droplets, resulting in sharper and smoother prints, with lower operating temperature
o Able to use synthetic colorants
o Will roll out its first color production inkjet system, the SurePress L4033A in late 2011
- Sharp announced it is the official sponsor of a 13 foot by 9 foot video wall at the September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. The video wall will be constructed of 9 Sharp PN-V601 60” color LCD panels.
- Oracle Corp. won a lawsuit it filed for patent violation against SAP, and a federal jury ordered SAP to pay Oracle $1.3 billion in damages. New HP CEO, Leo Apotheker was running SAP at the time of the infraction. SAP will appeal the decision. HP’s former CEO, Mark Hurd, now works for Oracle.
- HP’s new CEO, Leo Apotheker, announced that the company will dump its current Siebel CRM, (division of Oracle) and instead go with Salesforce.com.
- In a press release, new Hewlett Packard CEO, Leo Apotheker, stated that he will refocus the company’s R&D to increase software sales. “With software, companies can add much value to any product which is intended for HP customers”.
- Hewlett Packard filed a patent for “multi-threading” called “Parallelization in Printing” that will supposedly enable servers to speed up processing of large multi-page print jobs.
- HP reported its last quarter’s financials:
o profit up 5%
o total revenue up 8% to $33.28 billion
o net income of $2.5 billion
o operating margin decreased to 9.9% from 10.2%
o PC sales up 4% to $10.3 billion
o Services revenue up 0.4% to $9 billion
o Software revenue up1% to $974 million
o Printer/MFP division revenue up 8% to $7 billion
Supplies revenue up 6%
Commercial hardware revenue up 22%
Consumer hardware revenue down 2%
Commercial printer/MFP units up 43%
- Hewlett Packard announced it sold five Indigo 5500 production color systems to C2 Imaging, a printshop in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- EFI announced a printing solution for owners of Apple iPads. The company released PrintMe Connect for AirPrint, a free software package, allows users of iPads, iPods or iPhones to print to a Fiery driven MFP.
- Apple will roll out a second generation iPad next April, according to Wall Street analyst, Brian Marshall. In addition, the company announced it purchased the former headquarters of HP in Cupertino, CA for use as new office space.
- Lexmark announced that some of its products will now be sold by Best Buy.
- Xerox announced that customers who own some of their production monochrome systems can pay for a temporary speed upgrade. Details:
o Applies to Nuvera 100, 120 and 200 models
o Called the Xerox Flex Speed Program
o Entails field installation of firmware by technician
o Provides boost to speed for up to 90 days
o Customer can extend for another 90 days
o Maximum speed boost of 44ppm
o Cost for 90 day period runs from $2000 to $7500 depending on model
o Service contract pricing remains same
- Xerox announced a new option for its Xerox 700 Digital Color Press, the SquareFold Trimmer Module. Details:
o Also for the 1000 Digital Color Press, 4112 and 4127
o Option for the Booklet Maker Finisher or Light Production Finisher
o Provides square folding, and creasing of cover sheets in booklets
o Provides face trimming of booklets
o Minimizes toner cracking on the fold line
o Pricing not announced
- Xerox announced it sold 1000 Digital Color Press to Kellmatt, a printshop in England.
- More details on new color laser MFPs from Xerox, the WorkCentre 7545 and 7556:
o replace 7345, 7346, 7755 and 7765 models
o are made by Fuji
o 7545 offers 45ppm color or b/w, while 7556 offers 50ppm color and 55ppm b/w
o Base MSRPs of $18,899 and $23,199
o Use LED instead of laser technology
1200x2400dpi (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)
o 8.5” color LCD touch screen control panel
o Document feeder scans at 70opm top speed and holds up to 110 originals
Can NOT scan both sides of original at same time
o Optional fax board for $1095 for single line and $1399 to add second line
Apparently no Internet fax/FoIP option
o 200K/month and 300K/month max duty cycles
o Main engine is only 308lbs.
o Use Xerox EA (emulsion aggregate) ultra low melt polymerized toners
Black toner yields 26,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
Color toners yield 15,000 pages each based on 5% coverage per page
o Drums have yield of 125,000 pages each
o Comes standard with 520 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass
Additional 520 sheet drawers are $499 each
2000 sheet LCT for $1999
Can convert paper drawer to a 60 envelope feeder for $349
o Finishing options include:
$2500 for 50 sheet stapling finisher
• $795 for hole punch kit
• $1195 for booklet making option
$4995 for booklet making finisher with hole punch
$299 for convenience stapler
o Built-in SMART print controller
Actual maker unknown (most likely Marvell Technology)
EIP (extensible interface platform) for embedded applications
1.5GHz processor
1GB RAM for copier memory and 2GB RAM for printing/scanning (separate boards, which is older technology)
160GB hard drive is shared by all features
• Hard drive overwrite function standard
10/100/1000BaseT and USB ports
Scan to and print from thumb drive
PCL, PostScript, PDF and XPS print drivers standard
Scan to network/folder/LDAP/SMB/email/FTP
Optional OCR board
Optional embedded EFI Fiery for $4195
o Two other new Xerox models are based on the above, and are aimed at the light production market, and are called the Xerox Color 550 and Color 560. Differences are:
550 offers 50ppm color and 55ppm b/w
560 offers 60ppm color and 65ppm b/w
Base MSRPs of $34,700 and $39,200
Replace the DocuColor 252 and 260
2400x2400dpi
Comes standard with two 500 sheet paper drawers, 200 sheet letter drawer and 250 sheet stack bypass
Auto duplex standard
$2000 for letter size LCT
$5995 for 13” x 19” LCT, or $9995 for dual drawer 13”x19” LCT
Handles up to 300gsm (runs at half speed)
10.4” color LCD touch screen on armature
Document feeder holds up to 250 originals
• Top color scan speed of 50opm
• Can scan both sides of original at same time
30K yield for black toner, and 34K yield for color
Black drum yield of 85,700 pages
Color drums yield 194,500 pages
Does not come standard with a print controller so choices are:
• $18,000 for Xerox FreeFlow server
• $6995 for embedded EFI Fiery
• $25,500 for external EFI Fiery
• $16,000 for external Creo
$999 for single line fax, can add two more lines for $1399
• $990 Internet fax option
Finishing options include:
• $2995 finisher with 50 sheet stapling and hole punch
• $4995 finisher with 50 sheet staple, hole punch and booklet making of 15 sheets
• $6550 finisher with 100 sheet stapler, hole punch and cover inserter
• $11,800 finisher with 25 sheet booklet maker
o $5700 for trifold/z-fold option
- More details on new color laser MFPs released by Ricoh:
o Model numbers in U.S. will be Aficio MP C3001, C3501, C4501 and C5501
o Replace models C2800, C3300, C4000 and C5000
o C4501 and C5501 offer following advantages as compared to old C4000/C5000 models:
Faster warmup times (i.e. 22 seconds versus 34 seconds for C4501)
Faster first copy out time (5.9 seconds for color versus 6.5 with C4501)
Faster recovery from sleep mode (19 seconds versus 32 seconds with C4501)
67opm top scan speed
2GB RAM versus 1GB
New option to allow printing from USB thumb drives
New optional envelope feeder kit for paper drawer
Bypass can handle up to 300gsm versus 256gsm
Can now use auto duplex with bypass
New scan to web mail (SSL over SMTP)
- Ricoh stated that its worldwide sales decreased 1.9% to $5.8 billion last quarter.
- A retired Columbia University professor who held the sole patent covering a method of producing LEDs and laser diodes has died at age 83. Details:
o Gertrude Neumark Rothschild began research career with Sylvania Research Labs in Bayside, NY in 1950s
o Later worked at Philips Labs in Briarcliff Manor, NY
o Joined Columbia as professor of materials science in 1985
o Her patents led to laser and LED technologies used in laser print engines, DVD players, computers, instrument panels and background lighting in cell phone screens.
o In March, 2008, she sued LG, Nokia, Pioneer, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba for patent violations
o She received settlements totaling $27 million according to her lawyer, Albert Jacobs.
- A company finally shows a desktop color inkjet printer based on Memjet technology. Details:
o Company is Astro Machine Corp. of Illinois
o Unit will be called AstroJet Color Page Printer
o 1600x1600 dpi and 1600x800dpi modes
o Lower resolution delivers up to 3600 letter size pages per hour
Unlike traditional inkjet models, coverage does not slow down print speed
o Can also handle up to 9,000 number 10 envelopes per hour
o Maximum sheet size of 9.5”x17”
o Maximum paper thickness of 0.5mm
o USB port
o Weighs 75lbs.
o 20”Wx24”Lx17.25”H
o Pricing and ship date not announced
- Samsung launched its first A3 color laser MFPs in Europe, the MultiXpress C9250ND and C9350ND. Details:
o actually made by Samsung in South Korea
o top speeds of 25ppm for 9250 and 35ppm for 9350 models
o Possible base MSRPs of $4600 and $7000
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o Polymerized toner, with no fuser oil
o The MultiXpress brand is for dealers, and the CLX brand is for VARs (as CLX versions of these will also be launched)
o Supplies for MultiXpress models supposedly will only be available from dealers, and not on-line from superstores
o 120 potential dealers were invited to a launch meeting in Germany
o Danwood, the largest independent dealer in Europe, has already agreed to carry
o Code-named “Cosmos series”
o 8.9” color touch screen LCD control panel
Offers XOA for embedded applications
• Stands for eXtensible Open Architecture
• Uses Java operating system on top of UNIX
o Samsung Security Framework standard
o 8.5 second first color copy out time
o Optional fax board
o Comes standard with two 500 sheet drawers and a 40 sheet stack bypass
Maximum paper supply with options of 3,140 sheets
o Auto duplex standard
o Document feeder holds 100 originals with top scan speed of 60opm, and can scan both sides of original at same time
o Black toner yield of 25,000, color toner yield 15,000 pages each, all based on 5% coverage per page
Drum yields of 75,000 pages
Possible per page cost of $0.0075 for b/w and $0.05 for color for supplies
o Optional hanging stapling finisher of floor-standing booklet maker
o Built-in print controller
Actual maker unknown
1GB RAM
250GB hard drive
USB & 10/100/1000BaseT ports
PCL, PDF & PostScript print drivers standard
No optional EFI Fiery
- Canon launched a new desktop A4 color laser MFP, called the imageCLASS MF9220Cdn featuring:
o MSRP of $1495
o 25ppm top speed b/w or color
o 3.5” color LCD display
o Scroll wheel on control panel to choose features
o No warmup time from sleep mode
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o Canon pQ polymerized toner
o Auto duplex standard
o Built-in print controller with Windows GDI printing only
MF9280C model offers PCL & PostScript print drivers for $2295 MSRP
o Scan/fax/print/copy standard
- Canon announced it will be official office equipment vendor for New York Islanders hockey team.
- Canon reported that its dealer’s sales are up 10%, but its branches are up only 2%.
- More details on new b/w laser A4 MFP from Canon:
o 40ppm and 50ppm models
o Tentative launch in summer of 2011
o Will not use Canon imageCHIP print controllers
o Will not support MEAP embedded application platform
o 4” monochrome LCD panel
o Optional hanging corner staple finisher
o Will not have cartridge based supplies (like its printers)
o Color version in late 2011
- Canon announced that it is collaborating with Accenture to expand its managed print services business, initially in Europe. Accenture details:
o headquarters in Ireland
o U.S. headquarters in New York
o Was originally a division of Arthur Anderson
o Split away and was called Anderson Consulting
o Renamed Accenture in 2001
o Has 204,000 employees
o 200 locations in 120 countries
o World’s largest outsourcing firm
o Has 96 of Fortune Global 100 as customers
o Last fiscal year revenue of $21.6 billion
o Is largest competitor to the ACS division of Xerox
o Signed 4 year partnership contract with Canon
o In past, Canon has been customer of Accenture for finance and accounting
- Impact Networking, a dealer with locations in Illinois and Wisconsin, announced it has adopted Pickard Elementary School in Chicago, providing its 432 elementary students with Christmas gifts.
- FM Audit Inc. of Jefferson City, MO announced it has added a “Green Reporting” feature to its managed print services software that will allow dealers to provide info to customers on their printer’s paper consumed, supply usage and power consumption.
- More details on the new Lexmark X792 color laser A4 MFP:
o 50ppm top speed, making it the fastest color A4 engine available
o 10.2” color touch screen LCD display control panel
Largest screen in industry in this segment
Has eTask Interface
• Has tactile feedback, meaning that end user has feeling of a click when touching the LCD screen
• Context-sensitive audible feedback, meaning end user hears sound when touching control panel (for example, when window is opened, end user hears a “whoosh” sound)
• LCD does not move up/down or swivel
Uses Adobe Flash Lite for faster LCD screen performance
o Offers Lexmark eSF
Stands for Embedded Solutions Framework
Has Java operating system running on top of UNIX
o Comes standard with following LCD button screen features:
Forms & Favorites lets end users store forms and other documents on the hard drive for recall to print
Eco-Settings lets end user choose features to reduce energy, toner and paper usage (for example; auto-duplex, draft print, sleep mode, etc.)
Change Background allows end users to customize the LCD screen
Showroom allows end user to load a slide show as a screen saver on the LCD
o Thumbnail job preview also allows end user to change some output settings
Only work for secure print jobs requiring PIN code
o Comes with copy of Lexmark MarkVision Enterprise:
View up to 20,000 devices on a single server
Asset Manager
Policies
Service Desk
Event Manager
o Advertised cost per page for b/w is $0.012 and for color is $0.079.
Based on using the hi-yield black toner cartridge that is $237.99 after returning the empty one to Lexmark, and has advertised yield of 20,000 based on 5% coverage per page
Based on using the hi-yield color toner cartridges that are $447.99 after returning the empties to Lexmark, and has advertised yield of 20,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
Does not include labor, parts, and other consumables
o 14 second first color copy out time
o Document feeder holds up to 75 originals, and scans at top speed of 49opm, and can scan both sides of original at same time
o Built-in print controller:
Actual maker unknown
1.2GHz processor
1GB RAM (can upgrade to 2GB for $859)
160GB hard drive
USB & 10/100/1000BaseT ports
• USB port in front for scan to or print from thumb drive
Optional WiFi port for $449
PCL, XPS, PDF & PostScript print drivers standard
Optional forms/bar code printing for $380
Optional IPDS printing for $899
Scan to email/LDAP/FTP/SMB standard
Does not offer optional OCR
o Analog fax board
o Comes standard with 550 sheet drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass
Additional 550 sheet paper drawers are $349 each
Optional caster base for $349
2,000 sheet LCT for $899
Optional banner media tray for $499
o Finishing options:
Hanging 500 sheet offset stacker for $699
Optional 5 bin mailbox unit for $899
Hanging 50 sheet stapling finisher for $899
Hanging 50 sheet staple with 2/3 hole punch finisher for $1049
- More details on new Lexmark X925 color A3 MFP:
o Actually made by Casio
o Is LED and not laser
o 30ppm top speed
o Advertised cost per page of $0.018 for b/w and $0.103 for color
Does not offer return program for cartridges
$126.99 black toner cartridge yield of 8,500 pages based on 5% coverage per page
$187.99 color toner cartridges yield 7,500 pages based on 5% coverage per page
Does not include labor, parts or other consumables
• Black drum yield of 30,000 pages for $84.99
• Color drums yield 30,000 pages each for $95.99 each
• $13.99 waste toner bottle yield of 30,000 pages
- Fuji Xerox president, Tadahito Yamamoto, gave an interview to the press about future of printing business:
o Company is three years into reinvention as a managed print services provider
o Due to maturing hardware markets, is scrambling to diversify its revenue mix
o Spent $761 to build the Yokohama Minatomirai research and development facility
o Will spend $755 million on R&D this fiscal
o Company’s current ingrained hardware manufacturing culture is proving difficult to change
o Looks to IBM as role model
- Sony Corp. announced it is selling its digital photo printer division (dye sublimation technology) to Dai Nippon, which currently makes the Screen color inkjet production printing systems.
- Notable Solutions Inc. (NSi) reports that 25,000 customers now have one of its AutoStore document capture server solutions.
- Toshiba announced it is entering the portable data center market, and has opened up a demo center in Tokyo. It hopes for $240 million in revenue for this new division by 2015.
- Toshiba announced that its total worldwide revenue last year was $69 billion, but that its TEC division (which offers MFPs & printers) was only $2 billion.
- Rather than offer an embedded version of Nuance eCopy for its MFPs, Toshiba instead is offering products from Drivve:
o Drivve is based in Germany
o Founded in 1994
o Opened U.S. operations in 2007
o Also offered by Xerox
o Also competes against NSi AutoStore
o Drivve Image is a server-based application
o ScanBooster (no OCR) is $495
Scanner PowerTools/OCR is $995
$500 for universal database connector
$2595 bundle includes connectors for MS SharePoint, Exchange and FaxCore
$3995 bundle also includes barcode recognition
All pricing is for one MFP
Additional MFPs are $1295 each
o Drivve DM is a cloud-based document management solution using browser
$29 per user
$10 for workflow user license
$15 per gigabyte of cloud storage with encryption
- Quick historical timeline of printing technology:
o 618AD = first printing is done in China by T’ang Dynasty using ink on carved wood blocks to transfer image on to paper
o 1241 = Koreans use movable type to create books
o 1309 = first paper made in Europe
o 1338 = France opens its first paper mill
o 1390 = Germany opens its first paper mill
o 1423 = Block printing used to print books in Europe
o 1452 = Metal plates used for printing in Europe
o 1456 = Johann Gutenberg prints the Holy Bible
o 1457 – Fust and Schoeffer create first color prints
o 1476 = William Caxton uses Gutenberg press in England
o 1495 = England opens its first paper mill
o 1501 = Italic type is first used
o 1605 = First newspaper published in Germany
o 1611 = King James Bible is printed
o 1691 = Americans open their first paper mill
o 1702 = Jakob Le Blon invents multi-color engraving in Germany
o 1800 = first iron printing presses
o 1829 = Louis Braille invents embossed (raised) printing
o 1841 = Type composing machine invented
o 1844 = Electrotyping invented
o 1846 = Richard Hoe invents cylinder press, running at 8,000 sheets/hour
o 1863 = William Bullock invents rotary web-fed press
o 1865 = Web offset press that prints on both sides of paper is invented
o 1886 = Ottmar Mergenthaler invents linotype composing machine
o 1870 = Paper is produced from wood pulp
o 1890 = First mimeograph machine
o 1892 = First 4 color rotary press
o 1960s = invention of photocopier and laser printer
- According to New York Post, Samsung and Toshiba are in a secret bidding war to acquire Seagate, maker of hard drives.
- Printelligent, a managed print services dealer in Salt Lake City, announced that Edge Solutions, a managed IT services vendor in Georgia, will resell its MPS program to its customers.
- Microsoft’s Peter Neupert stated that the company is abandoning efforts to make HealthVault (cloud based storage of PHI info) profitable because of the complexity of the U.S. health system. Now the benefit of continuing to offer the product was “simply to increase brand relationship” by raising Microsoft’s image with customers as “important, critical and trusted”.
- McKesson announced it won an EHR contract from North Sunflower Medical Center of Mississippi.
- The Ohio Regional Health Information Partnership (OHIP), a state regional extension center (REC) has selected eClinicalWorks as the ambulatory EHR vendor of choice.
- Details from survey from the Agency for Health Research and Quality:
o based on data from 10,567 staff from 470 medical offices in 33 states
o More than 50% have encountered problems when exchanging information
o 69% reported that patient was unable to get appointment within 48 hours for serious problem
o 85% reported that a wrong chart/medical record was used for a patient
o 63% reported that a chart/medical record was not available when needed
o 70% reported scanning a patient record into the wrong patient folder
o 22% reported that pharmacy contacted office to clarify prescription
o 44% reported that patient’s medication list was not updated during their visit
o 39% reported that lab results were not available when needed
o 79% reported that an abnormal result from a test was not followed up within one business day
o 55% reported problems communicating with labs/imaging centers
o 50% reported problems communicating with other physicians
o 52% reported problems communicating with pharmacies
o 58% reported problem communicating with hospitals
o 82% had electronic appointment scheduling
o 59% have electronic access to test/lab/imaging results
o 51% have EHR systems
o 41% have electronic medication ordering
o 37% have electronic ordering of tests
- The California Department of Public Health fined 7 hospitals for HIPAA breaches:
o Kern Medical Center fined $250,000 for theft of 596 patient records from unlocked locker
Also fined $60,000 regarding unauthorized access to emergency room patient by two employees
o Pacific Hospital of Long Beach fined $225,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to 9 patient records
o Kawaeah Manor Convalescent Hospital in Visalia fined $125,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to 5 patient records
o Delano Regional Medical Center fined $60,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to medical record of relative
o Childrens Hospital of Orange fined $25,000 for employee gaining unauthorized access to patient record of coworker’s child
o Oroville Hospital fine $42,500 for employee discussing patient record on cell phone with others and posting on MySpace
o Biggs Gridley Memorial Hospital of Gridley fined $5000 for two employees gaining unauthorized access to medical record of coworker
Original Post