DUDE "Where's My Copier"

Really, where's the copier you took outta here three months ago!  The leasing company is still billing me because they're stating that they don't have the copier you took outta here, plus since you didn't get them the copier in time, they've now renewed my lease and they told me I have to make another year of payments!!  DUDE...Where's My COPIER!

I can imagine there's been many conversations like this between customer and manufacturer over the years. It's no secret that at the end of an FMV (Fair Market Value) Lease someone has to step up and make sure the copier goes back to the leasing company ON TIME!

So, who's to blame the copier rep, the copier company, the leasing company or the customer (lessee). Well, if it doesn't go back in time it's everyones fault except for the leasing company.  Remember this, "the thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service". 

Good work with no screw ups does not come cheap!  If you've received a quote for a new copier, and they are the cheapest (I hate that word), plus they are promising to get the copier back on time means you've got a problem.  Don't get me wrong I've seen many screw ups from the lessee side also such as these wonderful quotes, "we can't find a copy of the original lease", "what do you mean we have to ship it back", "we have to pay to ship it back", "we didn't realize our lease ended two months ago and now we have to keep the copier for another year".

"Dude where's my copier", should never have to be a phone call that you'll have to make in the future.  Copiers companies that are on the ball will present you with an iron clad SOW (Scope of Work) on how and when it will be done and what's expected on your end and their end to make this happen. If the company you're dealing with does not present you with the SOW for the return then you'll need to move on to the next vendor.  Just and FYI, all of this should be discussed when meeting with the copier companies reps, it will quickly narrow the field of vendors!

BTW, if you want to do business with Professional Expert Copier Companies and not the cheapest (I hate that word) then click here!
-=Good Selling=-

MFP Industry Notes for 3/25/2011

Special thanx to all of our P4P Hotel Forum Members & Moles for posting this information on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.

- Sharp announced it has acquired a large independent Ricoh copier dealer in England, named IOT Holdings. Details:

o IOT was originally founded in 1964

o Was not a Sharp dealer, so MIF will be converted

o Offices covered entire country

o Specialized in managed print services

o For CEO, Martin McCarney, will remain on board reporting to Paul Molyneux, Managing Director of Sharp UK

o Purchase price not announced

- Sharp just held its annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas, and main attraction to its dealers was the new 10.1” color touchscreen LCD on new MFPs that works similar to an Apple iPhone with its multi-touch functions. The theme for meeting was the new “UI” which stands for User Interface.

- The G-7 group of countries decided to take action to weaken the value of the Japanese yen. The recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant problems caused the yen to rise, impacting the profits when Japanese goods are sold overseas. In addition:

o The Bank of Japan pumped an additional 3 trillion yen into money markets Friday to keep financial markets stable, the fifth straight day of action.

- Xerox announced it sold an iGen4 110 production color system to the University of South Africa printshop.

- Xerox announced it won a managed print services contract from the City of Rochester, New York:

o Claims it will save city more than $2 million

o 5 year contract

o Reduced total number of devices from 459 to 168

o Contract included 24 of the ColorQube color wax copiers

- RISO announced that its high-speed ComColor color inkjet printers (which are actually made by Olympus), are now compatible with transpromo and forms solutions from Solimar. It also announced availability of MICR (magnetic image character recognition) ink for check printing applications.

- InfoTrends estimates that over 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against desktop printer manufacturers in regards to alleged premature replacement of supplies. Customers are claiming that the printer forces them to change out the cartridge, even though the cartridge is not completely empty. Companies named in the lawsuits are Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark and Samsung.

- The supply of ink and toner cartridges for devices made by Canon (which HP relabels), Epson and Kyocera may be impacted by the temporary closure of plants in Japan.

- Canon announced the following plants in Japan are temporarily closed:

o Utsunomiya = optics

o Oita = compact printers

o Toride

o Ami in Inashiki-gun

o Hirosaki

o Yuki

o Tsukuba – chemicals

o Fukushima

o Kasama – plastic molding

o According to the BBC (British Broadcasting Company), three of the above plants suffered serious damage

- Former IKON executive, Steven Yeffa, was hired as a CFO for Solar Universe, of Livermore, California.

- MGI announced it sold a MGI Meteor DP60 Pro production color system (based on engine from Konica Minolta) to Alphagraphics printshop of Macon, Georgia.

- Equitrac announced that it won contract from its 25,000th customer, with the inking of a deal with John Moores University of Liverpool, England:

o reduced printing by more than 4 million pages per year

o supposedly will save $250,000 per year

o cutting paper usage by 23 tons

- Gartner released its finding of U.S. MFP sales during last quarter of 2010:

o claims that Canon had most marketshare with 18.6% of sales (even though Canon does not certify its numbers)

o totals include low end products sold through websites and office supply/computer superstores

- Hewlett Packard’s Ann Livermore, Executive VP of Technology Solutions Group, stated “HP is particularly interested in acquiring intellectual property to support vertical markets…”, thus implying that HP is going to buying up software companies

- A Delaware judge late Thursday ordered that the letter that led to former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd's August resignation be unsealed.

o A lawyer for Mr. Hurd, Amy Wintersheimer, said in a statement that she planned to appeal the decision, meaning that the letter won't be made public anytime soon.

o The letter detailed his alleged improper relationship with a female employee

- Balboa Capital of Irvine, California, announced it is expanding its copier lease division, by hiring former employees of Great America Leasing.

-=Good Selling=-

5 Reasons Not to Buy a Refurbished Plotter from the Internet!

My Momma did NOT raise a fool! Today one of my clients asked to quote on a 42 inch plotter. As always, I whipped up a competitive quote for one of our Epson’s and emailed it over to them. After a follow up call I found out that they are going to buy a refurbished HP from some jackhammer web site that is offering the 42 inch plotter for around $2,700. I also found that this plotter was intro’d in 2009 and is possible two years old already. So, here are 5 compelling reasons to stay away from a refurbished product.

1) If you’re not buying directly from the manufacturer, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the system is not refurbished but it’s been USED and ABUSED.

2) It’s refurbished why? Because it did not work out of the box (it was a DEFECT), and pray tell who refurbished the product, was it someone with a good six months experience with plotters. You’ll never know until you get another repair bill.

3) Will the web reseller of the product put someone on site to make a repair if the plotter arrives and it’s still broken? If they don’t who will you call, someone you’ve never done business with before.

4) Support: You’ve got the plotter, you set it up, and you have questions about the operation or the print driver. You call the manufacturer and they tell you the system is out of warranty and if you need phone support you gotta pay!!

5) The print driver disks, and the manual are missing, along with that you did not comprehend the specs right and you find out that the stand is optional along with the network card and additional memory. The cost is not longer $2,700 plus now you’re losing productivity because you need to order the additional items, wait for them to arrive and then install them.

When I first got into the copier business, one of the best quotes I ever heard was “The thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service”. In this case the poor service would be all of the above.

-=Good Selling=-

Is Copying or Printing on Paper Bad??

For those that think printing on paper is bad, consider this:


o the paper making industry plants more than 1.7 million trees per day, as when any tree is harvested, it is replaced by several

o The U.S. has about the same number of trees today, as it did 100 years ago, due to management

o For every ton of wood a forest produces, it removes 1.47 tons of CO2 from the air and replaces it with 1.07 tons of oxygen

o In 2009, over 64% of paper consumed was recycled, in contrast the recycle rates for others:

 Metal = 36%

 Glass = 22%

 Plastic = 7%

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Toshiba "TWIT Notes"

This information as posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums today.

A putative class filed suit Tuesday in California against Panasonic, Toshiba and SanDisk Corp., alleging they overcharged consumers by up to $1 billion through a cartel to control intellectual property rights to secure-digital cards


Toshiba's two nuclear fuel facilities in Japan have been shut down since Friday's earthquake and tsunami, a top company executive told Reuters on Monday.

Toshiba’s stock plunged 16% in reaction to the fact that the company made several of the reactors at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan. However, Toshiba’s CEO, Norio Sasaki, who is himself a former nuclear engineer, stated that company would not give up on its plans to grow its nuclear plant development.

Due to the recent shutdown of a Toshiba plant in Japan, some analysts predict a shortage of NAND flash memory chips, which are used in many different electronic devices.

-=Good Selling=-

I'm on Vaca

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 3/13/2011

Everyone this will be my last blog until 3/24/2011, off to Aruba with the wife for President's Club!!! Yippe!

- Hewlett Packard officials are refuting a story being published in Asian newspapers that claims that the company is going to sell its hardware business to Samsung or Lenovo. HP executive, Bill Wohl said; “irresponsible reporting and should be dismissed as market rumor and speculation”

- A California judge ruled that HP may keep shielded from the public documents related to its summary judgement motion in a long-running class action suit over an alleged display screen defect in its Pavillion notebook computers.

- IDC reports that the worldwide printer and copier market grew by 7% in last quarter of 2010.

- ProSource, a Konica Minolta dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced it acquired docuVision, a local document management systems dealer.

- ECi, which makes software used by copier dealers to run their business (OMD, LaCrosse, NexGen, etc.) announced it has acquired FM Audit, which makes managed print services software. Purchase price not announced.

- Thomas Reprographics, NRI and CallPrint have formed LINK Document Services Group, which will be a joint venture to provide managed print services to customers in the U.S. LINK’s first action was to acquire Sepialine, Inc. and its Argos software platform.

- Toshiba announced it will invest to expand its plant in Houston, Texas which makes electric motors for hybrid automobiles.

- Lexmark is preparing itself to be sold, according to Frank Voisin, of iStockAnalysis. The company has taken following recent actions that are common when a company wants to sell:

o amended its employment agreements

o ensuring continued employment and benefits for senior executives in case of change in control

o providing bonus if terminated without good cause following change in control

- Police in Gainesville, FL arrested Douglas Brian Osborne after he attempted to use fake $20 bills at a local Stubby’s restaurant that he made using a color copier.

- Police in Texas are searching the Alamo area for people who are using fake $20 bills made on a color copier to buy products from local Kmart, Walgreens and Lowes stores.

- Nuance announced the availability of a Macintosh version of its PDF Converter software.
- Kodak announced it has borrowed $250 million via a private placement of senior secured notes due in 2019. $50 million of these funds will be used to refinance a previous loan that was due in 2013.

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Canon "TWIC Notes"

Canon has pledged 300 million yen (approximately US $3.7 million) to the Japanese Red Cross and other organizations, as well as offering to provide supplies as needed.

Canon Inc. has advised that 15 employees were injured at its Utsunomiya facility, which is said to have sustained significant damage. Operations at this facility have been suspended.

In addition, the facility of a subsidiary company -- Fukushima Canon Inc. -- has also suffered significant damage.

Canon Inc said it may not be able to resume production at three plants in Japan this week.



Canon announced it has transferred Mason Olds back to the U.S. from Canada, to become Vice President and General Manager, in charge of the Canon dealer channel. For last 8 years, he was running Canon Canada.

Canon announced that it has temporarily halted production at some of its plants in Japan due to recent earthquake.

Canon announced it will be using new Intel Thunderbolt technology on its future digital cameras to speed up offloading of photos and videos.

Canon is collaborating with Apple on future video editing software technology.

Canon announced a new option for its imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFPs, called Cloud Portal, which will allow users to access Google Docs and MS SharePoint Online cloud-based services directly from MFP LCD control panel.

-=We offer our heartfelt condolences and prayers for the people of Japan=-

Ricoh LTD commits to almost 3.6 million dollars (300 Million yen)

Ricoh LTD commits to 3.6 million dollars (300 Million yen) for relief and reconstruction of quake victims in Japan  (this was posted today on the Ricoh web site in Japan today.

Can we be affected here in the US & Canada?

Since the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant dangers are not under control, and the likes of Japan being back to normal in a few days, a few weeks or even months could be wishful thinking.  All of the events in Japan made me think what are the ramifications here in the US, if you're a reseller of Multifunctional Copiers?  Could there delays in getting equipment, supplies and parts?  As most of you know I sell Ricoh products, so I started today with some research on where the Ricoh facilities are located in Japan.  I realize that a lot of the units are assembled in China, however many parts, motors, pcb boards, connectors and some MFP's still are assembled in Japan. 

Back in 2003, I had the chance to visit the Tohuko, Ricoh Facility in Myiagi, which is located some 20 miles south of Sendai, and about 65 miles north of the troubled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.  When I had visited back in 2003, Tohuko was assembling 55 page per minute and above digital devices, along with Digital Duplicators.  I took a trip the their web site to see if they were still assembling these products but couldn't get any additional information from the site.

So, I put together this short list of locations and factories for Ricoh in Japan:

Ricoh operates factories in Tottori (Ricoh Microelectronics Co., LTD), located 421 miles southwest of Tokyo, Ibaraki (Ricoh Printing Solutions) which is about 95 miles south of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant and Miyagi (Tohuku Ricoh) which is about 20 miles south of Sendai and 65 miles north of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, Iwate (Ricoh Optical Industries), which is located about 95 miles north of Sendai and about 55 miles inland of the Ocean, Yamanashi (Yamanashi Electronics Co., Ltd.) which is located about 73 miles west of Tokyo, Miyagi (Ricoh Hasama) lies 113 miles north of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant and 54 miles northeast of Sendai, Saitama (Ricoh Unitechno) is located about 13 miles north of Tokyo, Saga (Ricoh Keiki) about 713 miles southwest of Tokyo, Kanagawa (Handano & Atsugi Plant) is located 28 miles south of Tokyo and a few miles from Yokohama, Hyogo (Yashiro Plant) 331 miles southwest of Tokyo, Fukiu (Fukui Plant) located 324 miles west of Tokyo near the Sea of Japan, Shizuoka (Numazu & Gotemba Plant) is 111 miles southwest of Tokyo.


What They Do

The only plant I’m familiar with is Tohuku Ricoh,when I visited back in 2003, they produced 55ppm and above systems, along with duplicators, and additional products. Seems that the Gotemba Plant which is a production site for consumable solved with RFID tags, Fukiu Plant a manufacturer of electronic circuit modules, Numazu Plant, which is a production site for consumables.

How Will the Quake Affect Us in the US & Canada?

All I have are questions, will there be a shortage of certain hardware devices, parts & consumables?  Will we be able to fill our orders here in the US. Will I have any systems that I can deliver in 30 days, if so will what will be available and not available? Do I raise prices if there is going to be  delay in getting hardware?

I think Ricoh needs to send a message to Direct and Dealers asap either to alert us to changes or tell us that there will not be an interruption in our supply chain.

BTW, I put a new link on the top of the right of this site for the American Red Cross for donations for all.

-=Good Selling=-

Our Thoughts and Prayers for Japan

This morning I sent a tweet to all of my followers in reference to the devatasation in Japan.  The earthquake was centered in the North Pacific Ocean and northeast of Sendai, Japan. 

About eight years ago I had the opportunity to visit Japan on a "Sell the Solution" contest from Ricoh.  I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Sendai and was able to tour the Ricoh Tohoku factory in Shibata-machi.

The Miyagi Prefecture and its surrounding areas include major manufacturing and industrial zones, with many chemical and electronics plants.

It's already been asked on the Print4Pay Hotel forums if this earthquake will have a an effect on hardware and supply chain not only for Ricoh but for other manaufacturers that have facilities in the immediate area.

My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes, jobs and family members.  We hope and pray that all employees and their families at Tohoku Ricoh are safe.

The Print4Pay Hotel Staff

MFP vs Laser Printer "What's the Dope on Total Cost of Operation"

Ok, I'm done watching Idol, saw my favorite singers do well and I'm always impressed with Randy's slang, telling one singer "that was the DOPE!"

As an adjective DOPE can mean, very good, excellent; COOL,and as a noun DOPE can mean information; "inside story", "scoop". So, we're gonna give you the DOPE on MFP's vs Laser Printers on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.

It seems everytime I tune in the Print4Pay Hotel forums there's another awesome document or thread that was posted by a P4P'er (When you're a member that's what we call you).  Just the other day one of our analysts posted a thread in reference to "Drum Yields". 

Here's the thread:

I'm wondering about stated drum yields vs. actual drum yields. Does anyone have any specific experience with certain models or vendors where actual drum lifetime or performance fell far short of stated yields?

I chimed in with "there are many reasons that drum yields fall short, one of the main culprits is the multipage cycle of the drum, meaning if most of your prints were always one or two pages your drum yield would fall far short of the manufacturers yield".

The next day, SSG posted of the best documents I've read all year titled "beating out a laser printer". I'm not going to post the document here, nor will I cut and paste it here.  But I'll give you a few tidbits of the document.

1. “If you print more than 5% toner coverage on the page, the fuser life is ..........
2. "A significant cost concern when purchasing a colour printer with many experienced colour printers users is the industry approach to fixing an image quality problem..."
3. "What usually are not discussed are the additional items associated with a colour laser printer which can add significantly to the cost per page and...
4. "Did you know that many laser printer manufacturers base their page coverage on a page that is...."

I've been in the copier industry for 31 years and this document is one of the best I've read in years!  It gives a clear, consise picture of how laser printers differ from MFP's (Copiers), not the marking (laser) engine but how the laser printer manufacturers rate consumables, speeds, and costs. I was able to learn a few additional itmes that I never knew and you can bet the ranch I'll be using this information in the field.

If you'd like to get the real DOPE on laser printers vs MFP's go to the Print4Pay Hotel forums and become a member of the largest social group of Copier.MFP Professionals in the World!

-+Good Selling=-

Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?"

I think I started the poll Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?" back in October of 2010.   Since that time we've had almost 400 votes on the subject.

We asked:

Good Deal, Bad Deal or Not to sure

Good Deal  took 41% and 160 votes

Bad Deal   came in at 42% and 167 votes

The Not so Sures came in at 17% and 68 votes.

It's looking like a dead heat to me, but instead of closing this poll tonight I'm going to keep it going.  The reason?  With the recent bomb dropped by Xerox that they will not be selling wide format after 2011 leaves a GIANT void.  I'm expecting that OCE District Sales Managers will be out in droves trying to sign on each and every Canon dealer to cover the GIANT void with the OCE products.  So, when you think about it, the Canon deal with Oce looms even larger than expected.

You know there's some naysayers out there that expect the wide format (LED engines) to contract here in the US, due to economy and matured market.  But sometimes, it's not just about the wide format system that was placed, more often it's about the last vendor that was in to get the wide format sale now may have an opportunity to compete for the MFP business. Or, how about the large AEC firms that wants to do business with one brand for all of their devices, keeping things simple with billing, support, web tools and all of the other goodies.  With Xerox out of the wide format business so to speak, what dealers or what direct branches will stand out when the customer wants have one brand?

The likes of Canon, and Ricoh come to mind and if you really really think about it Ricoh is the only one to OEM all of their products from MFP's to Wide Formats.  Canon will have their MFP's and Oce wide formats, the likes of KonicaMinolta will have thier MFP's and KIP, with Kycoera and Toshiba doing the same as KonicaMinolta.

My point, upside with the Canon acquisition of Oce seems to be like Canon Dealers and Direct will have more opportunities than ever.  On the other hand the downside for all of us in the wide format business is that Xerox Direct and Xerox Dealers will be eliminating stock at all costs. It won't be easy selling wide format in 2011.

Hope you liked the poll, come join us in the P4P Hotel Members only forums!

Posting now on the Forums "KIP in Trouble?" read about on the forums!

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes from 3/6/2011

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel members and our moles from across the globe for posting these updates on the P4P Hotel forums!



- Hewlett Packard announced that over 2,000 printshop personnel attended the Dscoop Annual Conference in Orlando, FL, which is a gathering of HP Indigo production color users.
- Hewlett Packard gave out details of its Imaging & Printing Group’s (IPG) last quarter’s financials:

o revenue up 7%

o 17% operating margin

o 33% increase in commercial printer hardware units placed

- Hewlett Packard announced it sold an HP T350 production color inkjet system to Griffin Press of Australia.

- Lexmark announced a new option for some of its desktop color printers and MFPs called SmartSolution Weather App, which lets users check weather forecasts directly on the color LCD panels of the devices, and print out weather reports for selected zip codes.

- Oce’, a division of Canon, announced it won a world-wide managed print services contract from GDF SUEZ:

o 9,000 devices

o Offices in more than 20 countries

o Contract worth 55 million euros

- UDOCX, a company in the Netherlands, announced that its new product will extend any browser-embedded MFP with mail, print, store and fax features without need to install any additional software or hardware:

o Cloud-based document processing service

o Direct access to MS Outlook Contacts stored in MS Exchange

o Documents stored in predefined places

o No unauthorized access

o Printing of stored document initiated from MFP

o Fax with fax board

o No software maintenance

o Administrative control from web interface

o Pay as you go subscription fee

- After a year of speculation, Heidelberg finally announced which company it decided to partner with to sell digital production color systems.

o The company chosen was Ricoh

o Will develop a connector to the Ricoh Aficio Pro C901 production color system for its digital offset press Prinect workflow

o Will resell the Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition

 90ppm unit with PxP polymerized toner and 2 bits per pixel output

 Ricoh will provide service via IKON or dealers

- Ricoh announced that its planned launch of a new 47ppm and 52ppm b/w A4 MFPs has been delayed until 7/1/2011.

- Cornell University’s Hoe Lipson and colleagues are working on “bio-printing” technology, using a converted inkjet printer to grow human tissue, such as skin, bone and cartilage.

- Intel announced it is pushing to sell its Atom processor to printer and MFP makers for their print controllers, as it is now available with a built-in high speed PCI Express Interface, meaning devices can connect directly to the chip without a separate I/O controller.

- The Canadian federal government awarded its printer contract to:

o Hewlett Packard

o Okidata

o Kyocera

o Xerox

o Dell

o Vendors on contract last year that did make cut were Lexmark, Samsung, Sharp and Ricoh

- A report issued by Morgan Stanley predicts:

o sales of tablet computers will cause 1-2% decline in spending on toner and ink due to less printing in 2011

o will decline 2.4% in 2012

o tablet users print 20-35% less inkjet pages and 8-15% less laser pages

- A report by GAP Intelligence states:

o In last 2 years, the average color click charge for office-class color A3 MFPs has dropped by over 10% to $0.0658 in government contracts

- Toshiba announced it will provide turbines for a geothermal plant in New Zealand.

- Toshiba announced that it is now selling used/refurbished HP LaserJet printers that it sources from Global Printer Services of Wisconsin.

- In a study conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review gives more proof of value of printed page:

o Reader of printed version of the New York Times newspaper spend on average 30 minutes per day reading newspaper

o Reader of on-line version spend only average of 14 minutes and 29 seconds reading

- Sharp launched the PN-L601B-PKG, which includes:

o 60” color LED backlit touch panel display

o Compact PN-TPC1W whiteboard PC

o SR-560M rolling cart floor stand

o “a well designed, comprehensive and highly performing interactive whiteboard solution” said Steve Brauner, Senior Product Planning Manager

- Sharp gave out details on 4 future b/w A3 laser MFPs, called the MX-M282N, 362N, 452N and 502N featuring:

o Top speeds of 28, 36, 45 & 50ppm respectively

o All made by Sharp

o Based on “Jupiter III” platform

o 7” color touchscreen LCD display

 Do not have retractable keyboard

o Optional document feeder holds up to 100 originals, but does NOT scan both sides of original at same time

o Comes standard with two 500 sheet paper drawers and 100 sheet bypass

o 500 sheet internal exit tray with offset stacking

o Optional internal stapling finisher

 Optional external stapling finisher or bookletmaking finisher

• Requires bridge unit

• Optional hole punching

o Built-in print controller

 Actual maker unknown (most likely Zoran)

 576MB RAM for copier memory and 1GB RAM for printer memory

 Optional data security kit (but it is not Common Criteria certified)

 800MHz processor

 80GB hard drive

 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports

 PCL print driver standard

- Kodak announced that its NexPress production color system won 8 awards for Superb Printing from the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen (IAPHC)

- President Obama announced the appointment of Kodak CEO, Antonio Perez, to the President’s Council of Jobs and Competitiveness, along with Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns, and GE CEO, Jeffrey Inmelt.

- Secret Service agents arrested Paul Rickett of Mountain View, California for filling a minivan with $30,000 worth of fake cash, made with a color copier.
- Okidata announced it will use environmentally-friendly bioplastics for some of the parts in its LED color printers and MFPs. The bioplastics will contain 25% plant material.
- Zoran, maker of print controllers, announced it is being acquired by CSR, maker of wireless chips, for $679 million

- Conexant Sytems, maker of print controllers, announced it is being acquired by SMSC (Standard Microsystems Corporation) of Long Island, NY for $284 million. (this company has technology from former companies; Rockwell Semiconductor, Oasis Semiconductor & SigmaTel)

-=Good Selling=-

Fujitsu ScanSnap N1800 Network Scanner "Spec Review"

Fujitsu launched the ScanSnap N1800 Network Scanner offering:

o 20ipm top speed

o Scans both sides of original at same time

o 200spi or 300dpi

o b/w and color scanning

o 8.4” color touchscreen LCD display

 Preview of scanned images

 Zoom, pan, rotate images

 Can delete or scan more pages to a batch

o Holds up to 50 originals

o Scan to email/folder/network/FTP/MS SharePoint

 Scan to fax or printer

o Automatic blank page deletion

o 11.8”W x 8.9”D x 6.8”H

o Base MSRP of $1895

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh MP C300 and MP C400 "Spec Review" II

More info on the new Ricoh A4 color laser MFPs, the Aficio MP C300 and MP C400 offering:

o While are A4 (meaning letter/legal size paper only), the main engine is so large, apparently it is designed to be a floor standing unit only

 base engine weighs 176 pounds

 base engine is 22”W x 22”D x 28”H

 platen glass is for letter size originals only (can not place legal size originals on the platen glass)

o 30ppm and 40ppm top speeds respectively

o Are based on the current engines from Aficio SP C430DN/431DN color printers

o Maximum recommended volume of 15K/month and 25K/month

 Anticipated average monthly volume is 4K/mo on C300 and 6.5K/mo on C400

 Expected color usage of 25%

o Document feeder comes standard:

 Top scan speed of 30opm at 200dpi setting

 Holds up to 50 originals (does not scan both sides of original at same time)

o 8.5” color touch screen LCD display that tilts up and down w/thumbnail preview

o 600x600dpi as copier and 1200x1200dpi as printer (1, 2 or 4 bits per pixel)

 Choosing higher bit depth causes print speed to slow down 50%

o Comes standard with single 550 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass

 Maximum paper capacity with options of 2,300 sheets

 Can handle up to 256gsm

 Auto duplex standard up to 163gsm

 Second 550 sheet drawer is $660

 Dual 550 sheet drawer unit is $1240

 Drawers have “gentle auto close” feature, where a motor helps pull drawer back in (more parts to break?)

o Uses Ricoh PxP polymerized toner w/4 tandem OPC drum design

 Black toner yield of 8300 pages based on 5% fill per page

 Color toners have yield of 10,000 pages based on 5% fill per page

o 50 second warm up time with 15 second first color copy out time

o $ 930 Optional fax board (up to 400dpi with $195 optional RAM)

o Optional copy data security kit for $710

o Optional proximity card reader for $299

o Output options include:

 50 sheet side exit tray $220

 Optional 100 sheet internal one bin tray $320

 Internal 50 sheet stapling finisher $500

o Built-in GW (Grand Works) print controller: (actual maker unknown, most likely Oak Tech)

 1.5GB RAM and 160GB hard drive come standard

• If user wants to store documents on hard drive must buy the $605 optional file format converter kit

• Comes standard with data security, but if end user demands Common Criteria certification, this costs an extra $390

 Intel Celeron 1GHz processor

 XPS, PCL and PostScript print drivers standard

 USB & 10/100BaseT ports standard

 Optional 1000BaseT gigabit Ethernet for $460

 Scan to and print from USB thumb drive or SD digital camera memory card

 Scan to email/FTP/SMB/URL/NCP/TWAIN/LDAP/folder

• Optional web browser

 ESA (embedded software architecture) for optional embedded software (uses UNIX and JAVA operating systems)

-=Good Selling=-

ITEX 2011 Announces New Power Packed Feature: The Technology Innovation Forum

The upcoming ITEX National Expo & Conference, to be held March 22-23 in Washington, DC, just announced the addition of the power-packed “Technology Innovation Forum” to take place on March 23, from 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm.

This Technology Innovation Forum gives attendees direct access to exclusive technology companies and leaders who have a direct and indirect impact to our business and the industry at large. Attendees will be provided an opportunity to personally interact with each of the companies directly; see this new technology in action, ask questions, and learn how these innovations can be applied to their day-to-day business, and ultimately, what value they can add for their end users.

Key Technology Innovators Participating Include (but not limited to):

• Intel – Global Technology Innovators That Affect Multiple Devices

• Green Hills – Device Software Optimization/ Security

• SafeCom – MPS Environment Control and Optimization

• Compass Solutions– Salesforce MPS Automation and Management

• Newfield IT – MPS Facilitators and Environment Mapping and Impact

• ESP – Leader in Channel Power Filters

• Global Graphics – Mobile Printing and Electronic Document Management

• RIM – Pioneer in B2B Mobile Communication

• MWAi – Integrated M2M and M2P Solutions and Services

Important topics covered at the Technology Innovation Forum include how and why the industry is changing; who the major players are in the industry, and what opportunities exist for today and tomorrow.

Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to Participate. The Technology Innovation Forum is open to all ITEX registered conference attendees. To secure your spot for the show, register today at https://web1.accureg.com/ITEX11_prod/webmain/RegLookup.asp.*

The Forum is presented as a partnership between MWA Intelligence, Inc. (MWAi), a leader in enterprise-class M2M (machine to machine) and M2P (machine to people) solutions and services and Intel, world leader in silicon innovation, that develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live.

PRODUCED AND MANAGED BY:

ITEX 2011 National Expo & Conference, the largest North American trade show in the imaging channel, will be held Monday, March 21 through Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. ITEX National Expo & Conference is produced and managed by Questex Media Group LLC, a global, diversified business-to-business integrated media and information provider, headquartered in Newton, MA. For information on attending, visit www.itexshow.com or call 800-981-2741.

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Xerox "TWIX Notes"

- Xerox announced based MSRP pricing for its new 7500 series of color MFPs:


o 7535 = $15,499

o 7530 = $13,499

o 7525 = $11,499


- Xerox announced it sold iGen4 production color system to IWCO Direct, a printshop in Downey, CA
- Xerox’s ACS division announced it has acquired Unamic/HCN, a large customer care call center provider in The Netherlands.

- Xerox launched two new A4 desktop color devices, the Phaser 6500 printer and WorkCentre 6505 MFP:

o Made by Fuji

o 16.9”W x 21.4”D x 23”H for 6505

o Top speed of 24ppm color and b/w

o Max duty cycle of 40K/month

o Uses LED technology instead of laser

o Uses 4 tandem OPC drums

o Uses Xerox EA (emulsion aggregate polymerized) toner technology

 Can print black even if color toners are empty

 End user has choice of 1,000 page yield toner cartridges or 2500 page yield cartridges

o Optional auto duplex

o Comes standard with 250 sheet drawer and single sheet bypas

 Option adds second 250 sheet drawer

 Holds up to 80lb. cover

o 13 second first color print out time

o 600x600dpi (but only a maximum of 4 bits per pixel)

o 6505 has document feeder that holds up to 35 originals

o Built-in print controller

 PCL, XPS and Postscript print drivers

 Pantone certified

 400MHz processor for 6500, 533MHz for 6505

 256MB RAM (can upgrade to 768MB)

 No hard drive

 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports

 6505 has scan to email/network/USB

• ID card copy

• Fax board

- Fuji announced it installed the 700th Fuji Xerox 700 Digital Color Press in Australia at CopyWise, a printshop in Ivanhoe, Victoria.

-=Good Selling=-

Xerox Does WHAT with Wide Format???

One of the items I cherish about the business is that as long as you work hard,  it seems that you'll get rewarded with new opportunities that you never thought about.  Today happened to be one of those days.

Way back when in 1998 I was introduced the world of wide format copiers after I sold my Dealership and hooked up with a local Dealership that was a Xerox and Ricoh wide format reseller and service provider.  Up until the the introduction of the Ricoh 240W, I always felt like I was chasing Xerox, they just had an awesome amount of placements! 

As always ours is a changing business, Xerox Engineering was late to the market to introduce a low end digital wide format and companies like Ricoh, Oce and KIP took the offensive.

About three years ago I had heard a rumor that Xerox was going to eliminate the Xerox Engineering Division, however Xerox continued to release new machines and the rumor I heard many years ago seemed to be just a rumor.  You know these rumors, they come and go, some true some not so true.

Just a few days ago I had the chance to visit one of my accounts in Jersey who had just upgraded his two large Xerox wide format models (can't remember the model name, however it had an option to print red also) to two brand new KIP models.  He told that after he got the KIP's he had some found some serious flaws with the systems within a day and refused to sign nor verbally do the  D&A (delivery acceptance), I was told that KIP Corp had intervened to try and save the deal, however there was nothing and not even FREE that he would keep these machines. Thus, he turned to Xerox and got two of the Xerox 22ppm devices, those of us in the business are aware that the new Xerox were relabeled KIP machines, so without letting the cat out of the bag the flaw had to have been with the interface.  He is extremely happy with the Xerox machines.

Today, I opened my email and there it is "Xerox to stop selling wide format in the US and Canada in 2011", I was shocked!  Lord, how many times have I been shocked by this industry in the last few years!  I guess with the ancient rumor and that fact that Xerox was know relabeling units,  maybe the writing was on the wall! The article that I read states that Xerox will still continue to sell wide format in Europe and developing markets.

So, as shocking as it is, this has been confirmed by several sources that an announcement was made via conference call this morning format line is being discontinued when inventory is depleted.  You can read more on the P4P forums.

One blogger had asked if this was true that they were discontinued involvement in the black & white systems.  If the email that I saw is real it read "Wide Format" which would lead me to believe all of it. I had just checked the Xerox web site and there was no mention of this and I would tend to think that they would not do a press release since it would disrupt the inventory that's on hand.  One of the other statements that I read is that Xerox would still provide parts and service for 5 more years. 


North American players are now Oce/Canon, KIP and Ricoh,  who stands to gain the most from this? What a move by Canon a few months ago huh?  Like I said everyday day brings a new opportunity!

-=Good Selling=-