The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.- Panasonic announced it will lose $3.9 billion for year 2008, its first loss in 6 years.
- Danka Business Systems PLC asked its shareholders to approve a voluntary liquidation for the second time since it sold off its business to Konica Minolta. The vote will be on 2/19/09 to distribute the $6.5 million that it is left from the sale after debts were paid off.
- In a survey conducted by Gartner of 443 production print managers, they were asked on a scale of 1 to 7, which technology offers the best image quality:
- Toner: 5.68
- Liquid Ink (HP Indigo): 5.40
- Inkjet: 5.24
- Offset Press: 5.17
- First time ever that toner based production color output was favored over offset
- Xerox announced it will try a new managed print services to market its wax-based color printers & AIOs, the Phaser 8860 and the Phaser 8860MFPs
- Hybrid Color Plan #1
- Three meters collected
- $0.0169 for b/w and “useful” color pages (color text or small color logo)
- $0.039 for “everyday” color pages (web page prints)
- $0.079 for “expressive” color pages (heavy color)
- Hybrid Color Plan #2
- Two meters collected
- $0.0169 for b/w and “useful” color pages
- $0.059 for “everyday” and “expressive” color pages
- Xerox signed on as official sponsor of the DOCUMENT Strategy Forum event in Chicago, IL on 10/5-7/09 to promote document management.
- Xerox makes a change in one of its Global locations. Mike Hosking, formerly a Xerox executive in Rochester, NY, was named the new president of Capitol Office Solutions of Columbia, MD.
- Xerox send out a full color direct mail piece to customers across the country, with the tag line “Learn how to cut document costs by up to 30% or more!”. End users who respond and request info from Xerox are entered into a drawing for several Sony Bravia 40” HDTV sets. The promo claims lucrative trade-in dollars for existing competitive MFPs.
- A company named RITI claims it will introduce a printer that uses old coffee grounds to create the image.
- The U.S. Graphic Design Business study shows:
- 11% increase in graphic design establishments by 2013
- 13% increase in graphic design employees
- 2% growth in graphic design revenue
- 20% growth in graphic design freelancers
- Hewlett Packard, in an effort to boost sluggish sales, announced a trade-in program:
- Trade-in credit of up to $1000.00 off purchase price of new LaserJet (b/w or color)
- Trade-in can be any make and model
- HP claims it will “recycle” the trade-in laser printer
- Does not apply to inkjet printers
- Rochester Software Associates (RSA) announced the “Print Stimulus Package” where it has lowered the pricing of its web-to-print software for the print-for-pay industry. Customers can now get its WebCRD for as little as $19,995.00
- New technology to replace laser engines? Inventor Peter Salmon has introduced “Solid State Printing”
- Salmon Technologies Inc. is located in Mountainview, CA
- Does not use a drum or a laser printhead
- Promises high speed printing at a much lower cost
- Has not yet attracted investors
- Uses integrated circuits to attract toner to transfer roller
- The integrated circuits employs electrode structures on glass substrates with electrodes driven by solid state devices
- Electrodes are driven by 40 volt traveling waves (VTW)
- Each electrode applies one toner particle at a time
- Uses traditional fusing method
- Uses polymerized toner technology
- Can image both sides of paper at same time
- A printer with a 36” wide print width would consist of 86,400 writing channels per head
- Each channel includes a 10 micron micro print engine
- 2400x2400dpi
- Top speed of 200 feet per minute
- Machine would take up 16 square feet of floor space
- After a misleading article appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Kodak CEO, Antonio Perez was forced to deny the implications that it was going to sell off its copier division (the NexPress production color system and the DigiMaster production b/w equipment). He stated; “We are not thinking of divesting any of those businesses.”
- eCopy announced that it will allow IRIS Group to resell its product. IRIS makes the OCR engine that is used in eCopy products since 1998.
- Printable Technologies Inc. announced it will make PURLs more affordable. Personalized URLs (PURLs) are essential to variable data direct mail printing, where the end user can respond to an offer by entering a website that uses their name (i.e. www.jimsmithoffer.com). Originally costing $5000 for FusionPro Links software and $0.02 for each PURL created, the price was reduced to $995 with unlimited PURls.
- Ricoh announced new programs to get software companies to develop applications that can be embedded into new Ricoh MFPs. The Ricoh Developer Program (RiDP) now features:
- Java based Embedded Software Architecture
- DocumentMall membership, for $1000 per year, access to Ricoh’s web-based DocumentMall Software
As-A-Service (SaaS) solution
- Major Account/Strategic Account (MASA) membership is $2500/year for specific accounts only
- Education (EDU) membership is free to accredited higher education institutions
- Basic membership is free
- Premier is S400/year
- Premier Plus is $4500/year
- A company in Shingle Springs, CA was created to test hard drives removed from digital copiers for confidential data. Digital Copier Security Inc., run by John Juntunen, claims that when companies trade-in or dispose of their digital copiers, that they are leaving sensitive data behind for others to take advantage of. The company charges thousands of dollars to remove the hard drive, destroy it, and then provide certificate of its destruction to the end user.
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