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=-