A few weeks ago Ricoh released the MP2510 and the MP3010 series, neither of these
units offer color scanning!
On November 13th, 2006, Canon launched the imageRUNNER 1023 series (posted press
release in the "New Products Show" forum on this site). The 1023 series will scan color
documents to folder or to email and will accommodate 11x17 scanning!
With so much emphasis on color output these days from color MFP's and color laser
printers I would tend to think that users would prefer to scan2folder and scan2email
exactly what they see (I know I would) EWTS.
The naysayers will say, oh!! scanning in color creates a larger file size, it will tie up
network traffic, and it will strain your systems resources for storage. These are the replies
that we will have to focus on when selling against the Canon or the other manufacturers
that have already released black MFP's that can scan in color! Or, we may have to draw a
line in the sand and say if you scan in color don't you need to copy or print in color? I
would rather not want to fight this battle.
With more and more customers looking to office equipment dealers for solutions rather
than boxes, it would logical for the time being to have color scanning with black copy
machines.
I realize that Ricoh is on the forefront of Business Color machines and we still hold the
cards when it comes to speeds and feeds of the B2C systems, however we continue to be
overloaded with too many models, too many configurations and too many features that
are never used by the customer!
Simplify the product line; give us six or nine different systems that will use the same
toner, the same drums, and the same fusers when it comes to consumables. Stop
introducing Black MFP's and make them all color and lower the price to match the price
of the competitors Black MFP's.
If I were selling the Canon product line one of my first questions would be to ask the
client if they needed to scan color originals, of course the next question would be for
printing and or copying of those color originals.
Ricoh has also neglected to bring color scanning to the wide format series, competitors
here are also offering or are going to offer color scanning with their wide format
modules. Ricoh has time tabled for June or July of 2007 for an upgrade to the 240W, but
no color scanning in either 4PPM or the 6PPM model.
In Europe, Ricoh has released the MP161N; this unit is similar to the 1515MF here in the
states. However the MP161N will scan in color and in black (of course), offers a 50-sheet
document feeder, 16-ppm output, and a max paper capacity of 850 sheets, along scanning
both sides of the document in "one go".
These are the types of products to bring to market in the US. Hopefully we will be able to
get this unit in the near future. As far as I can tell there is no replacement for the
1515MFP on the horizon (at least the next six months) and the only low end MP series to
be introduced will be the MP2000 and the MP2001 slated for January of 2007 and the
MP2500 slated for May of 2007!
When will the day come when all MFP's are color capable of scanning and printing?
No comments:
Post a Comment