MFP Weekend Industry Notes 4/5/09

4-5-09

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

- Samsung now shipping a new A4 black/white laser MFP, the MultiXpress 6555N featuring:
- 55ppm top speed
- Letter/legal only
- 250K/month maximum duty cycle
- Maximum of 3,240 sheet paper supply
- Scan/print/fax/scan
- Auto duplex standard
- Document feeder holds up to 100 originals
- 80GB hard drive
- Color LCD control panel
- 256MB RAM standard (up to 512MB with option)
- 600x600dpi (4800dpi interpolated) (not 8 bits per pixel)

- Oce’ announced its last quarter’s financials:
- Total revenue of 658 million euro, a decrease of 6.3%
- Color now accounts for 27% of revenue
- Non-recurring revenue declined 14.8%
- Recurring revenue decreased 3%
- Imaging supplies decline 26%
- Machine population declined by 5.5%
- FM revenue increased 6.4%
- Headcount reduced by 413
- The net debt to earnings ratio was 2.96, just below the maximum of 3.0 that is required
by its banking covenants

- Ricoh announced a new optional embedded solution:
- made by Nuance Corp.
- named the Ricoh Personal Paperless Document Manager
- lets users customize the Ricoh MFP touch screen menus directly from their PC
- allows scanning at the MFP with single icons for scan to desktop, creating a searchable PDF
- can convert to Word document
- can scan directly into ECM solutions
- pricing not announced

- New York City Comptroller and Mayoral candidate William Thompson, stated that there was a “troubling pattern of mismanagement” in the New York City Department of Education. Apparently, the department signed a lease with Xerox for copiers that was supposed to cost $31,000,000 for length of contract. However, the actual amount spent so far is apparently $67,593,295.85.

- An antitrust lawsuit filed by Media Sciences Inc. against Xerox was thrown out by a District Court in New York. Media Sciences makes generic cartridges that work with Xerox devices, and Xerox has sued the company for patent infringement, with the case still pending.

- Xerox announced that it won three document management bids with its DocuShare Virtual Filing System solution:
- Manteca Unified School District of California to eliminate 200 filing cabinets,
saving $300,000 in storage costs
- U.S. Pretrial Services in Los Angeles, eliminating 12 filing cabinets
- City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii to automate the tracking of 75,000 absentee voting ballots

- Fuji, who makes most Xerox branded copiers and printers, announced some new monochrome MFPs, which will offer 35ppm, 45ppm & 55ppm speeds, as well as color scanning at top speed of 45opm. Most likely Xerox will be bringing to the U.S. under the Xerox name later this year.

- BERTL gave its “Five-Star Exception” rating after testing the new Frontier series of Sharp A4 color laser MFPs.

- Hewlett Packard announced new software for managing MFPs:
- HP Web Jetadmin Enterprise Edition offers technical support, maintenance and services required to maintain enterprise device management environments
- HP Business Intelligence Module offers reporting of usage
- HP IT Operations Module for IT operations with scalable performance
- HP Advanced non-HP Device Support Module manages non-HP devices in fleet
- HP Open Extensibility Platform to deploy custom device settings across fleet of HP devices, as well as capture device settings and data
- HP Web Jetadmin 10.2 provides controls for access, color usage, PIN authentication, security, and supplies management
- HP Universal Print Driver 5.0 for use on any new HP printer and/or MFP
- HP Output Server Solution to manage fax features
- HP Delivery Notification Solution for Manufacturing automates proof-of-goods delivery by scanning and capturing signed paper invoices and routing them through accounts receivable

- Lexmark lost a legal battle in a Federal Court in Kentucky. The company had sued Static Control Components Inc. for patent infringement since it makes generic parts and cartridges for Lexmark printers. This may end Lexmark’s “Prebate” program, where end users get an upfront discount on their toner cartridges, if they promise to send back the empty cartridge to Lexmark, thus preventing another company like Static Control from refilling it, or using the parts.

- EFI, maker of Fiery print controllers, announced management changes:
- Toby Weiss, new general manager
- Bryan Ko, new general counsel

- The City of San Francisco passed the country’s first “Do No Mail” legislation, however it is non-binding at this time.

- Bitstream Inc., maker of PageFlex variable data software, announced it will integrate with DirectSmile. This will allow users of PageFlex to spell out the prospect’s name or message in images, rather than text in Direct Mail applications.

- Toshiba has been sued for patent infringement by the University of New Mexico in regards to technology for making semiconductors. The college is seeking damages and reimbursement of legal fees.

- After Toshiba sent out a memo denying that the company is considering selling its copier division to Canon, some industry trade magazines are now predicting that a potential buyer may be Fuji-Xerox.

- Kodak launched a new TV ad campaign to promote its desktop color inkjet printers:
- total spend of $30 million
- focus is on Kodak’s lower cost per page
- tagline is “The World’s Most Expensive Liquid Isn’t Found In the Middle East”
- “Last year America paid $5 billion too much for inkjet printer ink”

- An obscure company has filed suit against a number of Japanese manufacturers for alleged patent infringement. Papst Licensing GmbH & Co. claims that Canon, Olympus, Fuji, and others illegally used digital camera technology owned by the German company. Papst is a collector of patents, as it recently received a settlement fee from Seagate, over hard drive technology.

- Panasonic launched two new b/w MFPs, the DP-8025 (25ppm) and DP-8032 (32ppm) featuring:
- Are A3 models, handling up to 11”x17”
- Replace the DP-2330 and DP-3030 models
- Company has dropped the WORKiO name from its products
- Base MSRP of $7060 & $8235
- Comes standard with scan to SMB, FTP, e-mail/LDAP
- Optional print controller for $819.00
- PCL print driver only
- Optional PostScript driver for $200
- Requires $304 expansion board
- Fax kit option for $1489
- Comes standard with only 32MB RAM
- Can add 64MB for $236 or 128MB for $469
- 80GB hard drive option for $407
- Comes standard with two 550 sheet paper drawers and 50 sheet bypass
- Auto duplex standard
- Document feeder holds up to 50 originals and has scan speed of only 30opm
- Uses b/w touchscreen LCD control panel
- To make floor standing, choose one of these:
- Copy desk is $366
- Third drawer and stand for $769
- Two more drawers for $1054
- Hanging stapling finisher for $2014 and staples up to 30 sheets
- Toner yield of 15,000 pages with 5% coverage per page
- Drum yield of 60,000 pages
- Developer yield of 120,000 pages