WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
9-16-07
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.
- Details on programs that Kodak, Xerox and Hewlett Packard offer to teach print shop owners how to successfully market and sell digital color output. All these programs have a fee, but many times it is “baked” into the sale of new equipment:
o Kodak “MarketMover” Program
§ On-site consultation
§ Access to web-based depot for sales, marketing and business tools
§ Access to network of printshop owners who have increased capacity and services
§ Targeted sales module for vertical marketing
o Hewlett Packard “Indigo Capture” Program
§ On-site consultation and assessment of needs
§ Pre and post sales analysis
§ Access to website with training, tools, self-marketing collateral templates, sales guides, commercial job estimator and ROI tool
§ Includes “Start-up Manager” for 60 days to monitor customer and provide guidance and support
o Xerox “ProfitAccelerator” Program
§ On-site analysis of entire shop, including CSRs, finance, bindery, etc. Report is presented digitally with findings.
§ Development of comprehensive business and marketing plan
§ Workflow assessment
§ Application Development for customized applications as required
- Xerox is offering printshops a free tool to help them sell digital, called “Digital Print Shop In a Box” offering:
o Free trial of XMPie MakeMagic variable data software
o Free trial of NowDocs NowPrint ASAP web-based print job submission software
o Industry guide from PIA/GATF regarding opening new vertical markets
o Free trials of Xerox FreeFlow workflow software
o Digital printing tips from RedHotDigital, a Xerox website
o Toolkits from Adobe and Pantone for maximizing output quality
- Xerox claims that the top applications for print shop to sell digital print are:
o “Collateral By Request”
o “Books and Manuals On Demand”
o “TransPromo”
o “Direct Mail”
o “Photo Books”
- Details on the iGen3 series of production color engines from Xerox:
o Might be the only laser copier engine actually made in U.S., as it is assembled in Webster, NY
o Base MSRP of $500,000 with fully loaded system selling for $700,000
o iGen3 90 is 90ppm, while iGen3 110 is 110ppm top speed for full color
o Base engine is 24 feet long, and fully configured is 70 feet long
o Base engine is made from a welded steel frame the size of three phone booths
o Includes 3.5 miles of wiring
o Uses 4,000 parts
o Takes 9 working days to build by 120 employees
o Takes 4 days to test
o Requires drain in floor for waste fuser oil
o First year of production, 2003, a total of 100 were sold
o Cost $1 billion in research & development to make the first one by work of 600 engineers and technicians
o Refurbishing of used iGen3 models is done in Ireland.
o Xerox is working on replacing it in future with model that uses polymerization toner and flash fusing
- Xerox won a bid to supply an iGen3, and 232 MFPs to Europart in England.
- Xerox purchased Advectis Software, which makes BlitzDocs, a document management package for the mortgage industry, for $32 million. The company employs 41 people in Atlanta.
- During the Graph Expo show, Xerox entertained special customers at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and a had a drum band playing in its booth called “Chaotic”.
- According to PIA/GATF, almost 77% of the commercial print shops in the U.S. have not yet made the move from offset to digital.
- Objectif Lune announced that its VDP product, PrintShop Mail, is now fully compatible with DirectSmile personalized image templates.
- DirectSmile announced that it is compatible with EFI Fiery print servers that support PPML for variable data color output at or near engine speeds.
- Kodak, in a move to boost sales of its NexPress production color devices, announced that it has authorized the following locations to sell this product:
o All Ricoh factory direct branches in the U.S. This is part of a new production print program, run by Carl Joachim, VP of Production Printing Business Group. While the Ricoh branches will sell the product, service will still be handled by Kodak employees. This includes the NexPress 2100, 2100 Plus, 2500 and S3000 models, but does NOT include the NexPress M700, which is a relabeled Canon imagePRESS C7000VP.
o Pitman Company, which has 18 locations in the U.S., will sell both NexPress color and DigiMaster b/w models. The Digimaster product, which ranges in speed from 110 to 150ppm, is also sold by DANKA, and relabeled by Canon as the imageRUNNER PRO series.
- Kodak announced availability of a Pantone color reference book for the NexPress production color systems. The book was printed on a glossy paper using a NexPress system to show customers what the NexPress CMYK process equivalent is for a Pantone color, as compared with the color being printed on a press with actual Pantone ink. (Reminder: that all EFI Fiery print controller print driver disks come with a Pantone.ps file, which can be imported into Command WorkStation and printed on a calibrated color laser engine. This will show a customer what that engine’s Pantone CMYK process equivalent colors are. In addition, you can order the “Color Bridge” set from Pantone Corp. which shows, side by side, the actual Pantone color, and a CMYK process equivalent. This will also help you prove to customers the accuracy of your color laser MFP)
- Kodak claims that its Versamark production engines have printed 90 billion pages since they were introduced. Originally a division of Scitex of Israel, the Versamark uses high speed, low quality inkjet printheads to produce TransPromo variable data documents.
- Kodak announced that its Darwin variable data software, an option for the Creo print server, is now compatible with MindFire Software’s “Look Who’s Clicking”, that generates personalized web-sites for direct mailing, also known as PURLs. It also announced that Darwin is now compatible with Adobe InDesign CS3.
- Kodak is offering a free product called; “Begin Your Passage to Sustainability” to help print shop owners make transition to digital.
- XMPie now offering a new web-based print job submission program called “uStore”.
- XMPie also announced that all Alphagraphics locations will use their software to offer variable full color direct mail to its customers.
- Toshiba won more awards from Buyers Labs, Inc.:
o “Pick of the Year for 41ppm-50ppm Segment” to eSTUDIO 3510c color MFP, as it had no paper jams during a 50,000 copy test.
o “Highly Recommended” awards also went to 2500c & 3500c color MFPs
o The eSTUDIO 1101, which is actually a relabeled Ricoh Aficio 2101, won a “Highly Recommended” award as well.
- Konica Minolta Australia won a bid to supply approximately 4500 MFPs to the Australian Department of Defense.
- IKON announced that it will relabel the new Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C5500 and call it the IKON CPP550. In addition, it announced that the new external EFI Fiery, called the PRO80, will be offered for both the CPP550 and CPP650 (relabeled C6500) models later this year. (in other words, IKON will offer both an “entry level” and a “professional level” version of the C5500) IKON also claims that this new external EFI Fiery is at least twice as fast as the current EFI Fiery S450 platform. Other details on new Fiery:
o New hardware design
o Unique Visual Workflow
o Job progress at a glance view
o Built-in “how to” guides
o Advanced queue management capabilities
o MS Office Filters for Hot Folders for automated job submission
o Booklet Maker 3.0 workflow wizard
o Supports PPML variable data format
- IKON announced that it has sold two Canon imagePRESS C7000VP systems to American Reprographics of Winter Park, FL. In addition, the print acquired two IKON 1050s.
- Oce’ launched the VarioStream 9710 production b/w system offering:
o Uses rolls of paper only
o Top speed of 347 feet per minute (approx. 1515ppm letter size)
o 43 million per month duty cycle
o Auto duplex
o World’s fastest toner based system
- Oce’ announced that it will relabel the bizhub PRO C5500 and call it the Oce’ CS550. The company also announced that it now also sell Creo print controllers in addition to Fiery print controllers.
- Oce’ announced it will launch the ColorStream 10000, which supposedly will offer:
o 172ppm top speed color
o 852ppm top speed b/w
o handle volumes of 5 million per month
o LED technology
o Rollfed paper only
o Infrared fusing (no contact with paper)(similar to flash fusing)
o Maximum paper width of 19”
o Up to 240gsm paper weights
o Main engine weighs 2,410 kilograms
o May sell for as much as $1 million
o Ship in early 2008
- Oce’ announced it will offer optional GBC punch systems for its engines, and will be called “PowerPunch” systems.
- In a recent survey of graphic designers who were asked about print quality between digital color and offset, the following answered “Very Satisfied”:
o Image quality = 57%
o Color consistency = 45%
o Color matching = 44%
- Printshop owners who are using offset presses, and are using Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow software to manage their shops, will now be able to buy a module to allow Prinect to manage workflow of a Canon imagePRESS C7000VP.
- Canon states that the base MSRP of the new imagePRESS C7000VP color system with an external EFI Fiery is $230,000.00. This price does NOT include other paper sources, or finishing options.
- Canon announced it is spending 80 billion yen to build a new toner cartridge plant in Hirosaki, Japan. While its current plant uses 2000 employees, the new plant will use 1000 employees and various robots. Most of the cartridges made in this plant will be used in Hewlett Packard LaserJet b/w printers, which Canon also makes.
- Zoran, maker of generic print controllers used by many copier makers, announced that it will offer compatibility for Windows Vista XML format in future controllers.
- Curious where Kyocera got its name from?:
o company originally founded in 1959 in Kyoto
o started with 28 employees
o original product was ceramics for printing presses
o name came from combing “Kyoto” and “Ceramics”
o now employees 63,000
- Street pricing seen in the print for pay market:
o Xerox DocuColor 242 w/Fiery/LCT/bookletmaker for $47,500, or DC252 for $51,700 or a DC260 for $54,800. Service & supply pricing is $895/month for 15,000 color clicks, with overages of $0.049. B/W clicks are $0.0129 each. All clicks are 11”x17” on click.
o Xerox DocuColor 5000 w/Fiery for $105,000. Color click price was $1890/month for 30,000 clicks, with overages of $0.049. B/W clicks at $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Ricoh MP C4500 w/RADF/LCT/Booklet finisher/RIP for $15,200. Color clicks at $0.069, and B/W @ $0.011. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Canon IR-7105 w/Fiery/booklet-maker/LCT/hole-punch for $32,500. B/W clicks at $0.004 with 100K/month minimum.
o Xerox Nuvera 120 Pro w/RIP for $59,000 with b/w clicks at $0.0058 with minimum of 200K. Overages at $0.0039 each.
- Industry analyst predicts the following for digital b/w volumes in print for pay:
o 7% growth in direct mail pieces
o 3% growth in TransPromo
o 15% growth in book publishing
- Hewlett Packard claims that 25% of the plastic is uses for making covers and trays for its printers come from recycled toner cartridges. It also uses recycled plastic water bottles.
- Sharp purchased another one of its dealers, this time acquiring ImageCom of San Diego, formerly owned by Irv and Molly Whitten, and employs 20 people.
- Hewlett Packard purchased a competitor. MacDermid ColorSpan, formerly known as ColorMaster, manufactures wide format color inkjet printers.
- Duplo, which relabels the Sharp copier line, claims to now have 100 dealers in the U.S. Their goal, according to vice president Fred Simone, is 200 dealers.
- Screen Corp. of Israel now offering new version of their high speed color inkjet digital press, the Truepress Jet520 offering:
o 20” wide paper handling
o 720x720dpi
o Top speed of 209.9 feet per minute (rollfed paper only)(833ppm)
o Uses Epson piezo crystal inkjet printheads
- Lexmark won a bid to supply 5,000 printers to the Dixons Store Group (DSGI)
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