WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
9-23-07
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.
- More details on new Canon imagePRESS C7000VP
§ Uses pulverized toner, particle size of 5.5 microns, infused with wax
§ Fuser needs so much heat, that apparently end user must print 100 ledger-size test sheets before you can start a print job from a cold start
§ Before calibrating the EFI Fiery, you must calibrate the engine. This process requires running 100 ledger-size color test sheets.
§ Apparently, these ledger-size test sheets count on the meter, and therefore must be paid for by end user as part of their service/supply contract, even though these clicks generate no revenue for print shop owner.
§ Even though Canon uses amorphous silicon ceramic drums in other production print devices, this model uses green colored organic photoconductor drums to provide superior halftones as compared to ceramic drum output
§ Has two fusing sections, each uses a pressure roller, and a heated fuser belt. Second fuser is used to apply more heat for thick coated stocks that are in excess of 256gsm. If end user neglects to the machine that thick stock is loaded, and the thick stock goes through the first fuser, rather than the second fuser, the fuser will be damaged, the output will be inferior.
§ During a mixed media print job, there is a long delay as the machine switches from one fusing section to the other to adjust for thicker stocks.
§ Back to front registration in automatic duplex mode can only be adjusted by service technician, not by end user.
§ Paper drawers do not automatically sense the paper size, end user instead must program in the paper size. If this is not done, paper jams, or wasted paper could occur.
§ Optional booklet maker is the same as that offered on lower end MFP, and can only make booklets from 24lb. paper, and only up to 20 sheets, therefore not a true production finisher.
§ Total R&D investment of $1.2 billion from Canon to build first one (which may explain why this device has such a high selling price of $230,000.00 for base unit with Fiery)
§ Canon can make a maximum of 40 units per week from its factory in Japan.
- Canon reported that a deal to acquire JVC, a consumer electronics manufacturer, fell through.
- Office Product Analyst announced that Canon won a survey of end users regarding reliability of MFPs in 2007.
- Still wasting valuable research & development money? Canon is still fighting Nano Proprietary Corp. of Texas over patent licensing so it can finally launch big screen HDTVs. (how many billions will Canon spend on this that it could invest in MFPs instead?)
- Kazuo Takahashi of Toshiba Corp., and three others were arrested in Japan for created forged leases in order to obtain up to 13 billion yen from 4 different leasing companies.
- Toshiba Corp. announced it is selling one of its largest office buildings in Japan to raise money for investing in R&D. The Ginza Toshiba building, located in central Tokyo, will be sold for 161 billion yen, for the 9 floor, 40,415.33 square meter tower.
- Toshiba is recalling 73,554 portable DVD players that have AC adaptors that could overheat and damage the players, or possibly even start a fire..
- Toshiba apparently is considering offerings its MFPs to computer dealer/VARs in an effort to grow its marketshare in copier sales, as it has yet to break the top 5 producers in the industry.
- Toshiba purchased Advanced Business Tech of Arlington Heights & Chicago, IL, a Savin/Toshiba dealer, and will make it a factory direct branch. It was founded in 1982, and current president is Harry Talanian.
- The next Toshiba dealer meeting is 3/2-5/2008 in Carlsbad, CA.
- Ricoh now offering new wide format b/w systems to replace the existing Aficio 240W:
o Ricoh Aficio MP W2400
§ $11,298 base street price
§ 4ppm top speed for “D” size
§ 4opm top scan speed for “D” size
§ 600x600dpi
§ Maximum of paper size of 36”x590”
§ 1GB RAM
§ Optional PostScript
§ Scan to e-mail/folder/ftp/url
§ Toner yield of 2,200
§ Developer yield of 50,000
§ 11,800 linear feet per month duty cycle
o Ricoh Aficio MP W3600
§ $16,942 base street price
§ Same as W2400 but offers:
· 6ppm top speed for “D” size
· 6opm top scan speed for “D” size
- The City of Urbandale, Iowa awarded a bid to IKON for Ricoh Aficio MP 5500 for $6904.00 each, a 55pm b/w model, with clicks priced at $0.0049 each for all service/supplies.
- More details on Sharp MX-6201N and MX-7001N color MFPs, as stated by George Grafanakis, Senior Manager for Product Planning and Marketing for Sharp in an interview:
o 50ppm top speed full color
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o 62 and 70ppm top speed b/w respectively
o Microfine toner (pulverized toner infused with wax)
o 600x600dpi with 4 bit depth per pixel
o No fuser oil
o Will coincide with MX-6001N and MX-7001N which are $2K less and offer only 41ppm color speed
o Black toner yield of 42,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
o Color toners (cyan, magenta & yellow) yield of 32,000 pages each based on 5% coverage per color
o Black drum yield of 300,000
o Color drums yield of 100,000
o Maximum duty cycle of 300,000 black pages per month or 90,000 color pages per month
o Base MSRPs of $32,850 and $38,850
o Scan speed of 65opm for b/w and 35opm for color
o 3100 sheet standard paper supply
o Optional 3500 sheet paper deck
o 150 sheet document feeder (scans both sides of original at same time)
o Can print directly from a USB device
o Choice of either generic controller (made by Zoran Corp.) or an EFI Fiery.
o Auto duplex up to 90lb. index
o Up to 170lb. index in bypass
o Has OSA technology (will allow software to run in the LCD control panel)
o Finishing options include stapling, booklet-making, hole-punch and cover insertion
- Financial trouble for Sharp? Sharp said it would take a 14 percent stake in Pioneer, which will in turn buy 0.9 percent of Sharp. Even though Sharp has risen to become one of the world's top makers of flat screen LCD TVs, it has an operating profit margin of just 6 percent. The alliance will also give Sharp a steady customer for liquid crystal displays (LCD) from a new factory due to come on line in 2010, while propping up loss-making Pioneer with a development partner and an injection of cash.
- Xerox announced that 8 small dealers in the northeast have formed Xerographic Solutions Inc., a Xerox sales agency. The dealers, who have locations in New York and Pennsylvania, will use the Rochester dealer as their headquarters, and have named Mark Perlo, as their CEO.
- Xerox announced it has acquired Inland Business Machines of California:
o Headquartered in Sacramento
o Second location in Lathrop, CA (near Stockton)
o Was founded and owned by John White and Bill Knudson in 1977
§ Bill Knudson was killed in Alaska Airlines flight# 261 crash in 2/2000 when traveling from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco.
§ John White will now retire.
o James Koppert is current president
o Was a Savin, Hewlett Packard and Panasonic dealer (but originally was a large Minolta dealer)
o 8,000 customers
o Will now report to Michael Shea of the Global Imaging division of Xerox
o Purchase price unannounced
- More info on new Xerox DocuColor 8000AP which advertises it can print any weight stock at 80ppm full color:
o When running in the “ALL WEIGHTS” mode, all stocks, up to 300gsm, print at 80ppm top speed
§ When running coated or glossy stocks in this mode, the output is matte or dull finish, even though the paper is shiny
§ Solid areas can be splotchy
§ In order to have best possible print quality, use the “SINGLE WEIGHT” mode, which slows down dramatically in order to heat toner and coat with fuser oil, which is 40ppm
o Uses a new type of fuser technology
o Uses an upper fusing roller (not a fusing belt)
o Uses external heat rollers to heat the upper fusing roller, thus providing more “dwell time” for thermal energy to be delivered to the toner, paper and fusing oil
o Addition of two side fans to cool paper as it is leaving fuser to prevent sheets from sticking together
o New paper feed system with “active retard system” to allow thick stocks to be pulled from paper drawers without double feeding
o Added controls for back to front registration
o The AP in the model number is for “Advanced Productivity”
- Fuji Film of Japan (maker of most Xerox equipment) has developed an MFP prototype that can scan Japanese text and print it out in translated English, Chinese or Korean without changing the layout of the original page. The translation works in the opposite direction too.
- Xerox is expected to announce the introduction of the new Xerox Phaser 8860 (most likely a hot wax printer) on Monday September 24, 2007. While the details are still a secret it appears that Xerox is using this product launch to position the new Phaser 8860 as a low cost per print model. It is thought that a combination of value oriented pricing for the hardware and a new low pricing structure for the supplies will provide the small business customer an economical choice for a business class color printer. “It will be interesting to see how Xerox can pull this off without looking like they are turning their back on existing customers using older Xerox Phaser color printers.” said Dennis Walthers the President of FreePrinters.com.
- Kodak claims to have replaced 50 high speed b/w laser production print units at a service bureau in Sacramento, CA with 4 Versamark production color inkjet printers for TransPromo work.
- How much does ink for Hewlett Packard inkjet printers cost? In an article in a Minneapolis newspaper, a reporter calculated that it would cost $6 BILLION to fill an Olympic size swimming pool.
- InfoTrends predicts that digital color page costs will decline by 10% per year.
o Total color impressions will have a 51.3% compound annual growth rate by 2009
o B/W impressions will decrease 3.5%
- InfoTrends also stated that scanning systems would grow by 33%, with 29% of MFP sales being made solely because of scanning needs.
- IDC announced that a survey showed that 26% of desktop color laser printer users print over 100 color pages per week, and that 50% of total print jobs were in color.
- Former IKON executive, Darl McBride, now the CEO of SCO Group of Utah, announced the company has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, days before the start of a trial where the company faces legal penalties that could exceed its assets.
- A survey of companies in the U.S. revealed that there was only a 2% increase in the amount of color pages printed this year on color laser devices. Lyra Research stated that this is due to fear of color page costs.
- Lexmark’s Manager of Channel Marketing Operations, Kathleen Martin, left the company.
- Nipson, maker of high speed toner print engines, announced a new high speed color inkjet
- Former Kyocera Mita USA president, Bob Magrino, is now Regional VP in south for Neopost mailing equipment.
- Kyocera announced it will open up a factory direct branch in India.
- The New York City Library has on display the “Espresso Book Machine”, which can create a paperback book on the fly. It prints pages on b/w laser printer, a color cover on a color laser printer, then binds and trims it to completion all in a large, smoked glass case.
- Panasonic is unique in that it promoted the use of GDI based printing for its b/w MFPs.
o this pushes the processing of the page from the MFP to the end user’s computer
o this allow the MFP maker to reduce the manufacturing cost of the MFP, as it does not need a traditional print controller
o Panasonic promotes that this allows means less bandwidth on the customer’s network, and that customer avoids problems when a print controller fails on the MFP
o GDI printing however, does put a large system burden on the customer’s computer, and can cause it to severe slow down or lock up due to resource usage
o When customer upgrades the PC, it is unlikely that the new OS will support the MFP due to lack of GDI upgrades
o In contrast, most MFP and printer makers offer a PDF print controller that uses HP PCL or PostScript to process the file.
o Panasonic offers a traditional print controller as an expensive option
- Oce’ was named the number one FM vendor in the U.S. in a survey 20,000 outsourcing users.
- Value Place, a hotel chain in Kansas, awarded a bid for two bizhub 600s, one C352 and DocuWare software.
- Stora Enso of Europe announced it will sell its U.S. paper making operations to NewPage, a division of Cerberus, and will be headquartered in Miamisburg, OH. Store Enso had paper mills in Wisconsin.
- Is the paperless office coming? Not according to Lyra Research, which predicts:
o worldwide shipments of printers and MFPs to grow by 16 million units by 2011
o total hardware revenue to increase by $10.5 billion by 2011
- DANKA financial news:
o Quarter revenue of $108 million, a decline of 12.9%
o Gross margin down to 36.2%
o Loss of $12.2 million
- Hewlett Packard financial news:
o Sales of printer supplies represented 57% of HP’s imaging division’s net revenue (inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges for the DeskJet and LaserJet printers)
- The State of Virginia did a study of its usage of its printers and copiers and found:
o Has 34,221 devices that print or copy
o Total cost to own and operate these devices in 2006 was $29,607,712.00
o Amount of money spend on paper in 2006 was $7,499,827.00
o Amount spend on outsourcing was $37,702,417.00
o Xerox personnel assisted with this survey
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