WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
10-7-07
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.
- Ricoh has launched a program to its dealers called “Fall Business Builder Program” which gives dealers up to $3500 rebate for competitive trade-ins. For example, if the dealer upgrades a competitive Konica Minolta unit to a Ricoh MP C4500 color MFP, they get a $800 rebate from Ricoh. In contrast, upgrading a competitive model to a Aficio 3260 color MFP provides a $3500 rebate. This helps the Ricoh dealer offset the cost of the competitive lease buyout.
- Ricoh announced it is now shipping the Aficio C2000 (also sold under the Lanier and Savin names):
o based on the same engine used in C2500/C3000/C3500/C4500 models
o 20ppm b/w or color
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o Polymerized toner technology (Ricoh PxP) with no fuser oil
o 2/4 bit selectable output
o Full color LCD touch screen control panel
o Maximum of 3,200 sheet paper supply
o Optional finishing includes stapling, hole-punch and booklet making
o Optional fax board for $1023.00
o Can use USB port to print directly from a USB memory stick or digital camera
- Xerox involved in a lawsuit. Denis Galitsky is suing the company in regards to how some Xerox copiers stop copying/printing when a chip in the imaging unit hits a certain meter read. He claims that one day his Xerox copier stopped printing, and instructed him to replace the expensive imaging unit. Yet he was still able to print out a meter read from the control panel, so Mr. Galitsky claims that this proves that Xerox’s chip technology is preventing customers from getting full use out of their cartridges.
- Watson Realty, with 45 offices in Florida, agreed to buy 95 Xerox Phaser 8860 color wax printers to produce full color postcards and brochures.
- The Rochester Institute of Technology announced it is now offering a bachelor’s degree for Xerox Services managers.
- Xerox is holding an event next week called; “Photo Book Thought Leadership Workshop” in Rochester, NY on Oct 10 & 11.
o Invites went to photographers and photo labs
o billed as offering; “will focus various ways retailers can expand revenue”, grow your business, and get up to $3 a page for a Xerox print” using Xerox color laser MFPs
o Covering market opportunities for printing photo cards, photo books, photo calendars, and a variety of other photo novelties
o will include presentations by four leading software providers in the photo gift space: Whitech, DigiLabs, Pixami and MyPhotoFun
o include several panel discussions on topics like educating your customers on the best way to make and finish personalized photo products.
- Oce’, headquartered in the Netherlands, announced it latest financial report. Investors, who were disappointed by the lack of strong profit, drove down stock shares by 2.32%.
- Cenveo Direct Mail Group of Nashville, TN ordered a Hewlett Packard Indigo 5000 production color system.
- Kodak plans on showing a prototype of a high speed inkjet production color system at the DRUPA show in Germany in early 2008, using new “stream technology”.
- WhatTheyThink predicts:
o the print on demand market in U.S. will grow from 451 billion pages to 663 billion per year by 2011
o color impressions will grow by 30%, while b/w will decrease by 2%
o total revenue will grow from $46.5 billion to $79 billion
o color revenue will grow from $35.9 billion to $69.6 billion
o B/W revenue will shrink from $10.6 billion to $9.4 billion
- EFI announced it has sold its 1,500,000th Fiery print server to Centiv Services, Inc.(a print shop) of Chicago connected to a Canon imagePRESS C7000VP.
- Hewlett Packard announced it will offer as an option for its color printers/MFPs, SmartDraw desktop publishing software, to boost end user’s ability to create color documents.
- Brother and Kyocera are developing a new high speed color inkjet printer technology:
o called “Cobra”
o inkjet head is as wide as sheet of paper
o showed prototype to media running at 80ppm full color
o ink is supplied to heads via microtubes from ink reservoirs
o hopes to launch in late 2009 or early 2010
o hopes that the technology will eventually replace toner based laser printers and MFPs
- Canon announced that is has $8 billion in cash, and it will use some to buy back shares to boost company’s value.
- Graphix Products, a print shop in Chicago, announced it has ordered a Canon imagePRESS C7000VP production color system.
- Canon now shipping new workgroup b/w digital copiers, the imageRUNNER 2018/2022/2025/2030 series:
o 18, 22, 25 & 30cpm b/w
o 1200x1200dpi
o Optional fax
o Scan in color, while output is only b/w
o Optional print controllers (included with “i” versions)
o USB and 10/100BaseT ports
o Come standard with two 250 sheet paper drawers and 80 sheet stack bypass
o Maximum paper capacity of 1,080 sheets with options
o Optional 50 sheet capacity document feeder
o Finishing options include stapling and collating
o 2025i has base MSRP of $6400
o 2030e has base MSRP of $7800
- BERTL, a copier testing lab, announced it was purchased by Gladstone Capital Corp.
- CGI Group Inc. announced that it has expanded its partnership with Oce’ by signing a 10-year managed services contract valued at US$110 million.
o Under the agreement, information technology and business process services firm, CGI will deliver infrastructure services, including end-user computing, service desk, enterprise operations and data center hosting. The contract also calls for CGI to offer its customers Oce's copier, printer and document process management solutions.
o Commenting on the contract, Joseph Skrzypczak, President and CEO of Oce North America said, “Not only are we customers of CGI, but we're also very proud to count CGI as one of our valued clients"
- Oce’ won a bid with Judge and Dolph, a division of Wirtz Corp. The company is an alcoholic beverage distributor headquartered in Illinois. The bid included:
o im3511 color MFPs
o VarioPrint 2090 production monochrome systems
o PRISMAsatellite ERP software
o PRISMAarchive software
- InfoTrends performed a study showing that printshops that implement MindFireInc variable data software:
o 19% growth in digital color volume, versus 14.7% if using another brand
o Some shops had 21.4% color growth
- Toshiba now has 136 factory direct branch locations across 27 states.
- Tom Callinan, President of Strategy Development (and former IKON executive), states that 90% of companies have no idea how many desktop printers they have or how much they are spending on printer cartridges.
- A small company acquired a patent and is using it to sue color MFP makers in an effort to gain licensing feeds. Screentone Systems of Newport Beach, CA, a division of Acacia Research Corp. owns patent #5,166,809, which describes:
o original inventor is Craig Surbrook of Federal Way, WA
o patent filed on 11/1988 and granted on 5/8/1990
o technology for apparatus and methods for producing halftone screens (color separations) from continuous tone intensity signals
o Acacia filed suit against the color MFP makers on 8/8/07 in federal court in Marshall, Texas
o The color MFP makers filed a countersuit in Delaware hoping to prove that the patent is invalid.
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