MFP Weekend Industry Notes

12-28-08

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.


Oce’ gave out more details of its new monochrome production print engines, the 4000 series:- Models are 4110 and 4120
- Base engine price of $50,000.00 for 4110
- 106ppm or 120ppm top speed respectively (or 51 ledger size sheets per minute on either model)
- Up to 2.5 million print per month duty cycle
- Main engine weighs 1,289.7 lbs.
- Based on CopyPress technology used in the Gemini series (6250)
- Uses LED instead of laser technology
- 600x1200dpi with 141lpi printhead
- Optional document feeder has double sheet detection
- 75 original capacity
- Can scan while printing
- Top speed of 56opm
- Can handle paper weights up to 32lb. bond
- Scanning option includes; scan to e-mail, archive
- Large full color LCD touch screen control panel
- Comes standard with 4 paper trays with total paper capacity of 4,600 sheets
- Drawers 1 & 2 each hold up to 600 sheets
- Drawers 3 & 4 each hold up to 1700 sheets
- Optional paper supply pedestal
- Drawer 1 holds up to 600 sheets
- Drawer 2 & 3 each hold up to 1700 sheets of ledger/legal, or up to 3400 sheets of letter-portrait
- Can hold up to 300gsm paper weights
- Up to 12”x18” paper size
- Can place tabs and post-process inserts from any tray due to cold fusion technology (CopyPress)
- On-the-fly paper replenishment
- Air sheet separation in all drawers
- Vacuum paper feed in all drawers
- Finishing options:
- iHCS high capacity stacker holds up to 6000 sheets, can unload while printing
- Stapling Finisher
- 3 bins with total capacity of 4,000 sheets
- 100 sheet stapling
- Multi-format Stapling w/50 sheet multi-position stapling
- iBLM integrated booklet maker
- up to 20 sheet size booklets & can handle up to 80gsm
- iXDP integrated Exchangeable Die Punch& punches at engine speed
- Choice of third party finishing includes; binding, booklet-making, envelope machine, folding
- Built-in controller standard
- Intel Celeron M2.0
- 1GB RAM
- 80GB hard drive
- PCL, PDF, IPDS, PJL & PostScript print drivers
- 10/100/1000BaseT ports
- Optional print controller
- Intel Dual Core 2.2
- 2GB RAM
- 160GB hard drive
- Optional Job SubmitIT for auto submission of PDF, PS, PC & TIFF files with job ticketing and hot folders
- Optional PRISMAaccess provides web-based job submission
- Optional PRISMAprepare provides job building, page programming, accounting


Buyers Labs Inc. awarded Hewlett Packard with “Color Printing Line of the Year” and Lexmark with “Monochrome Printer Line of the Year” awards for 2008.

Ricoh won an appeal in the courts for patent-infringement against Quanta Computer Inc., make or DVD drives. This means that Ricoh will now be able to seek financial damages against the Taiwanese company over the products its makes that are used by many desktop computer makers.

Ricoh announced it will resell the Xythos Enterprise Document Manager solution, which provides web-based document management.

Toshiba announced it will spend $330 million to build a lithium ion battery manufacturing plant outside of Tokyo, Japan. It hopes to ship 10 million per month starting in 2015. Competitors are Sony and the Sanyo division of Panasonic.

Toshiba now shipping an optional embedded EFI Fiery for its new eSTUDIO 4520C, called the Toshiba GA1211 controller.

Epic Products International launched new UV-coating machines that it claims work well with output from color laser MFPs. TheCtI-635 is an in-line unit, while the CT-660 is an off-line model. Xerox will market as options for its iGen4 production color system.

Xerox again won a bid to be the official print service provider for the Buffalo Bills football team. Xerox has had this contract for last 20 years.

The Printing Industries of America predicts that in 2009, printshops will see an increase of 7.9% in digital/toner printing, as compared with a 0.7% drop in offset printing press output.

During conference that Xerox conducted at The Mirage Resort in Las Vegas, on 10/22/08, the following was stated about support from Xerox direct for national accounts(not Global):
- Xerox customers have 50 million “touch points” with Xerox service each year
- Offer live call support 24/7
- Have 14,214 technicians nationwide
- 60% of service calls are completed on-site
- 40% of service calls are remotely resolved
- Over 668,965 support issues are resolved on-line annual
- 5.3 million support issues are resolved over the phone
- 2.6 million support issues are resolved on-site
- Employ “Certified Information System Security Professionals (CISSP)”
- Have employees who are certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belts
- ISO 27001 Code of Practice for Information Security

Riso Kagaku Corp, maker of Riso duplicators, announced that the following about its financials:
- On Jasdaq Securities Exchange in Japan, it dropped to 851 yen
- Will reverse its profit forecast to a loss
- Expects to record a loss of 60 million yen ($663,000) for the year ending 3/31/09.
- Originally forecasted a profit of 1.5 billion yen
- Stock has declined 57% this year

Ricoh announced update on the finishing options it will offer for the new Ricoh C900 production color system:
- Z-folding unit
- Booklet finisher (up to 20 sheets)
- 2 tray cover inserter/imposer (post process insertion)
- Stapling finisher
- Coming later in 2009:
- 5000 sheet stacker with cart
- Plockmatic booklet maker with face trim (third party)
- Perfect binder
- Ring binder (punches three holes, and inserts metal rings automatically)
- GBS StreamPunch unit

Toshiba’s president, Atsutoshi Nishida, in an interview for Kyodo News International, called on the Japanese government to prepare a safety net for unemployed workers as companies are forced to carry out aggressive layoffs to combat the economic downturn. “Assuming a certain degree of downturn in business cycles, the government needs to prepare a safety net in terms of employment. It is very hard for companies alone to protect all workers, including temporary workers. We cannot do it without the power of the government. We have protected jobs in Japan….but losses at the semiconductor business are so huge that we cannot make them up even with profits in the social infrastructure business. I think the deflationary trend of end items will get worse and worse hereafter. It is very painful for us.”

According to InfoTrends, in 2009, 54% of medium-sized businesses are considering a new MFP to replace legacy equipment.

Lyra Research states that 2009 will be a strong year for managed print services:
- Revenue growth of 34% last year
- “Company consolidations and downsizing may leave organizations with too much printer, copier, and MFP hardware that needs to be divested and/or redeployed”
- “IT and facilities managers, often facing downsized staffs and over-stretched demands of their own, are more and more willing to get help from the outside to attain the cost benefits inherent in MPS (managed print services) implementations.”
- “Not too long ago, companies faced user backlash as they implemented printer consolidation and control. Today with employees more compliant and grateful just to employed, there may be less resistance.”
- Predicts that MPS will account for over 32% of hard copy market by 2011



Canon reported its last quarter’s financials:
-Sales of office equipment was down 13.3%
- Operating profit was down 25.8%
- Net income was down 21.1%
- Monochrome copier sales down 17%
- Color copier sales were down 4%
- Company predicts that in first quarter of 2009, color laser engine sales will drop a whopping 37% (most of these are sold under the Hewlett Packard Color LaserJet name)
- Has $8.4 billion cash on hand (many predict it will use this to buy competitors to gain back marketshare lost in 2008)

When Circuit City declared bankruptcy, the company it owed the most money to was Sony Corp, totaling $60 million.

According to Rick Dastin, president of Xerox Office Group (XOG), Xerox products now account for only 55% of the MFPs that Global locations are selling. (now that Xerox is experiencing slower sales in the U.S., will it continue to allow other brands to be sold in its Global subsidiary?)

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Bill Jordan, president of United Auto Workers Local 599 in Flint, Michigan, where General Motors builds engines, said he has noticed that the copy machines and printers that used to be spread throughout the massive facility have disappeared. “They’re doing their best to combine anything and everything they can to make it through the next few months”.

Competing against the new Toshiba color laser MFPs? (eSTUDIO 5520C, 6520C & 6530C) While these are being advertised as offering 8 bit color, is the print quality really 8 bit? In a recent interview, Toshiba’s President Mark Matthews stated that the company will continue to sell the 4500C and 5500C (relabeled Ricoh products) for “customers in graphic-oriented environments”. When asked about the new Toshiba-made products he stated; “We believe we have a product geared towards the general office”.