Growth Opportunities for Wide Format & The PEiR Group

This week I had an interesting email from Joel Salus. Joel is the Author "Reprographics 101" blog ad over the years we've been able to trade some information here and there.  Joel's blog can now be located at the IRgA web site.  The email was so informative about wide format that I asked Joel if I could use him as our Guest Blogger for this month.  Enjoy!

Hi Art,

The last time I dropped you an e-mail, your son had just graduated from Infantry Boot Camp. I hope your son is doing well!

Today, I visited your blog and read a couple of articles you posted about the Photizo Group conference you attended in Scottsdale. I received a "complimentary" invitation to attend the conference, but, unfortunately, I couldn't make it because I've had a very heavy workload the past couple of months .... and that hasn't let up yet.

I wanted to take just a minute to drop you a note about one thing you said in one of your recent blog posts.

Below, I've copied a sentence form that recent post:

"There seems to be growth opportunities for wide format systems, and we also mentioned the potential explosive growth for 3D printers".

Art, you may recall,

Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying a Xerox

Harry Hecht is our Guest Blogger for April, and according to Harry he's been in the office equipment business since Chester Carlson invented Xerography, and a little known secret is that Harry was actually Chester's assistant! Really???  Harry's been around for as long as I remember, and he always brings inspiration, vision and a can do attitude!

I asked for a couple of sentences in reference old copier companies for a blog I'll be posting in a couple of days, true to form, Harry gave me just a tad bit more, so without further adieu, enjoys Harry's ditty about the good ole days in the copier business!

Do you remember the days when a complete copier line included one or maybe two models? Selling at full retail was not only a possibility but a regular occurrence? When Xerox owned 90% of the market and the saying that "nobody ever got fired for buying a Xerox" was an unfortunate reality for the independent dealer? I may be dating myself, but I remember those days well and had to still have a lot of respect for the competition, camaraderie and "wild west' aggressiveness of many of the entrepreneurial manufacturers that competed against each other during the 70s and 80s.

Here are some copier manufacturer names that may serve as a blast from the past for many of you. Names like IBM, Kodak, 3M, Saxon, Royal, Apeco, Savin, Van Dyke, Escofot, Olivetti, and Mita just to name a few. These companies hit the streets with Direct and Dealer Sales forces with the hope and confidence of stealing business away from THE BIG X. The products sold during that time were crude, barely passed a copy, and in some even came with tongs and fire extinguishers -just in case there was a jam and a fire broke out. Oh those were the days. No need to worry about supply pirates and 2 hour response time. Profit margins were Huge and and the Yen was valued over 500 Y to the dollar. Getting in front of customers and demonstrating your product using the sales order ( already filled out ) was sales training of the day. Your manager would say" don't leave the office without an order"!.Talking about pressure. If a customer accepted your demonstration, your competitor would be in the lobby waiting their turn to try and hammer out a deal on the spot and or leave the machine in the customers office until they fell in love with it or just used it and stroked you along- yikes!

Well, time to wake up to a new  and renewed set of technology companies now entering the copier and printer space. Samsung, Dell, Lexmark, Brother, Epson plus all of the Big Players- Konica Minolta, Canon, Xerox, Ricoh, Sharp, Kyocera. Where does it end?. We now deal with information overload, the world wide web, 1,000s of SKU product numbers, accessories, tight margins and 40% discounts. What the heck happened? Opportunity is still there for all of us, however success and prosperity is a game of inches verses miles. Without knowledge and a well thought out plan and execution, who knows who the next fallen Angels list will look like.

Need to contact Harry?  Here's his LINKEDIN page.

-=Good Selling=-

Japanese Printer Companies in WWII "Part II"

Brother during World War II was know as Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company in 1934. Prior to 1934 they were known as Yasui Sewing Machine Co, and was founded by Kaneschi Yasui.

When the started in 1941 Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company aka Brother Sales Ltd had to switch from manufacturing commercial sewing machines to industrial sewing machines. Not much information was available if Brother produced any additional products for the war effort. However, it was noted that many of their factories received extensive war damage.

Epson started in 1941 as Daiwa Kogyo LTD and was located in Suwa, Nagano, Japan. Not much information was available for Daiwa Kogyo during the war effort, however Daiwa Kogyo was part of the Sieko conglomerate. Sieko like many other Japanese companies were ordered to produce military items such as timing fuses and ammunition.

Now, here's something I never knew in doing some research on timing fuses.

"From late 1944 until early 1945, the Japanese launched over 9,000 of these fire balloons, of which 300 were found or observed in the U.S. Some guesswork gives the total number that made the trip at about 1,000. Despite the high hopes of their designers, the balloons were relatively ineffective as weapons, causing only six deaths and a small amount of damage, and they survive in memory mostly as an ingenious and dangerous curiosity."

Geez, I wonder if this can still happen today, could these balloons go undetected?? Want to read more about the Fire Balloon!

Hitachi started in 1910 by Namihei Odaira, they specialized in manufacturing small 5 horsepower electric motors. In 1920 the name was changed to Hitachi, LTD.

"The rise of the Japanese military government in the 1930s forced some changes at Hitachi. Although Odaira struggled to maintain corporate independence, his company was nonetheless pressured into manufacturing war material, including radar and sonar equipment for the Imperial Navy. Odaira, however, was successful in preventing Hitachi from manufacturing actual weapons.

World War II and its aftermath devastated the company. Many of its factories were destroyed by Allied bombing raids, and after the war, American occupational forces tried to disband Hitachi altogether. Founder Odaira was removed from the company."

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Copier & MFP Industry Notes from around the World

SOME of the biggest brands in the printing sector are being tipped as suitors in a high-stake bidding war for Darwin-based managed IT services specialist CSG.

Sources are reporting that majority Japanese-owned Fuji Xerox and Canon's office division are the two main players behind bids that value the company at about $420 million.CSG provides managed print services and operates a managed IT services division. It already has partnerships with...read more

PLEASANTON, Calif., Oct 11, 2011 -- Visioneer, Inc., a leader in intelligent document imaging solutions announced today the launch of a new philanthropic program that will help worthy organizations across the globe that provide assistance to people and places in need. For every customer who registers a Visioneer or Xerox(R) DocuMate(R) scanner,...read more

NEWSBYTE,  Oct. 11, 2011 - Lexmark International, Inc., today announced the new Lexmark Patient Admissions and Registration Solution, which simplifies paper-intensive admissions and registration processes. The Lexmark solution enables healthcare providers to electronically capture, organize, route and access patient documentation quickly, accurately and securely, so they can spend more time focusing on patient care instead of processing paperwork...read more


TOKYO—As Japan's major exporters struggle to absorb the impact of the strong yen on their earnings, Canon Inc.'s finance chief said Tuesday that any substantial rebound in the euro against the yen is unlikely, as the euro zone's "structural problem" may take several years to solve. "Unfortunately, we can't hope for any quick recovery in the euro," Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka said in an interview. His comments came as the euro was showing a modest gain against the yen...read more

Oct 11, 2011 LONG BEACH, Calif. – Epson America, Inc., today announced a new line of superior performing printers for small and home-based businesses - the WorkForce® 435, 545, 645 and 845.  The new all-in-ones deliver the world’s fastest print speeds(1) and mobile printing capabilities through Epson Connect(2) to ensure easy, hassle-free printing. Each model in the series offers a range of functionality and intuitive operation at an affordable price...read more

-=Good Selling=-

Daily MFP News from around the world!

NORWALK, Conn., Aug 18, 2011  -- Xerox Corporation's  board of directors today announced that Sara Martinez Tucker has been elected to the board effective Sept. 1, 2011.  "Sara brings to our board impressive credentials and experience as an accomplished leader. Her success in both the public and private sectors will greatly benefit Xerox and our shareholders," said Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns. read more

Fake $100 bills, and all the tools needed to make more. A College Station police officer found that and more during a traffic stop. The officer was patrolling in the 2100 block of Texas Avenue when he saw a woman leave a store, and get into a 2011 Dodge Charger. read more


Lexmark International South Africa has announced a three-year global services agreement with Woolworths. The contract, as part of a Managed Print Services initiative, will enable Woolworths to achieve both savings and efficiencies through its print output management. Following a rigorous competitive review, Lexmark was selected because of its thorough approach to total cost of ownership, its worldwide service and support capabilities and its comprehensive set of product features. read more

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, recently introduced the latest addition to its award-winning lineup, the imageFORMULA DR-C125 document scanner. The innovative space-saving design and ease-of-use of Canon's DR-C125 scanner improves information accessibility, management, and collaboration, making it a viable option for a variety of office environments. The DR-C125 scanner features intuitive face-up feeding with top feeding....read more

LONG BEACH, Calif., Aug. 17, 2011 – iDatix, an emerging leader in the development of document management software, is simplifying the workplace and increasing profitability using Epson WorkForce Pro document scanners. Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 and GT-S80 scanners are certified for use with iDatix iSynergy® and ScanDox read more

Calgary, Alberta - August 18, 2011 – With an aging printer fleet and users relying on their expensive desktop devices, the City of Avon Lake was facing increases in its printing costs and resource consumption. To gain control of the city’s finances, a new budgeting structure was implemented so all costs were allocated by department. However, the current printing environment did not have a print management system to track costs so the city sought the help of its office equipment dealer, Ace Business Solutions. read more

Nashville, TN (August 18, 2011) – Océ Business Services, a leader in document process management and electronic discovery, will demonstrate eDiscovery, records management and document imaging solutions at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference. Océ will also address topics covered at the show including: emerging eDiscovery technologies, document management strategies to deliver better client value and streamline operational efficiency, and the importance of applying records retention policies across all electronic records repositories. read more

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 11/29/10

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- Okidata reports financial data:
o Worldwide hardcopy revenue declined 12% in first half of 2010 to only $675 million
o Operating loss of $34 million for first half of fiscal year
o Printer revenue down 22% as compared with 2006
o Printer revenue is 33% of total company

- The Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA) announced that U.S. businesses originated $4.9 billion in leases and loans to invest in capital equipment (which includes MFPs), which is up 14% from this time last year.
o 2.95% of borrowers were delinquent 30 days or more, down 3.41%
o Lenders in October considered just 1.2% of the loans in their portfolios as losses unlikely ever to be paid, down 1.7%
o 73% of all credit applications were approved, up from 72% last year

- Epson announced that in Europe, it will relabel desktop b/w laser AIOs from Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company). In addition, Epson sold its printer R&D unit in the Philippines to Kyocera.

- Epson announced it celebrated its 20th anniversary of launching piezo crystal inkjet technology:
o competes with technology used by HP and Canon, known as thermal inkjet, that uses heat to vaporize liquid water-based ink and fire it through printhead nozzles
o Instead uses mechanical pressure generated by a piezoelectric element when an electric current is applied to push droplets through nozzle
o Developed by current Epson president, Minoru Usui
o Is division of Seiko, the watchmaker.
 After launching its first dot matrix printer in 1968, the EP101, Seiko Corp. decided on the name “Epson” in 1975 as the division was the son of the EP printer.
o First printer to use technology was the Epson Stylus 800 in 1993
o Technology superior as it produces more precise ink droplets, resulting in sharper and smoother prints, with lower operating temperature
o Able to use synthetic colorants
o Will roll out its first color production inkjet system, the SurePress L4033A in late 2011

- Sharp announced it is the official sponsor of a 13 foot by 9 foot video wall at the September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. The video wall will be constructed of 9 Sharp PN-V601 60” color LCD panels.

- Oracle Corp. won a lawsuit it filed for patent violation against SAP, and a federal jury ordered SAP to pay Oracle $1.3 billion in damages. New HP CEO, Leo Apotheker was running SAP at the time of the infraction. SAP will appeal the decision. HP’s former CEO, Mark Hurd, now works for Oracle.

- HP’s new CEO, Leo Apotheker, announced that the company will dump its current Siebel CRM, (division of Oracle) and instead go with Salesforce.com.

- In a press release, new Hewlett Packard CEO, Leo Apotheker, stated that he will refocus the company’s R&D to increase software sales. “With software, companies can add much value to any product which is intended for HP customers”.

- Hewlett Packard filed a patent for “multi-threading” called “Parallelization in Printing” that will supposedly enable servers to speed up processing of large multi-page print jobs.

- HP reported its last quarter’s financials:
o profit up 5%
o total revenue up 8% to $33.28 billion
o net income of $2.5 billion
o operating margin decreased to 9.9% from 10.2%
o PC sales up 4% to $10.3 billion
o Services revenue up 0.4% to $9 billion
o Software revenue up1% to $974 million
o Printer/MFP division revenue up 8% to $7 billion
 Supplies revenue up 6%
 Commercial hardware revenue up 22%
 Consumer hardware revenue down 2%
 Commercial printer/MFP units up 43%

- EFI announced a printing solution for owners of Apple iPads. The company released PrintMe Connect for AirPrint, a free software package, allows users of iPads, iPods or iPhones to print to a Fiery driven MFP.

- Apple will roll out a second generation iPad next April, according to Wall Street analyst, Brian Marshall. In addition, the company announced it purchased the former headquarters of HP in Cupertino, CA for use as new office space.

- Lexmark announced that some of its products will now be sold by Best Buy.

- Ricoh stated that its worldwide sales decreased 1.9% to $5.8 billion last quarter.

- A retired Columbia University professor who held the sole patent covering a method of producing LEDs and laser diodes has died at age 83. Details:
o Gertrude Neumark Rothschild began research career with Sylvania Research Labs in Bayside, NY in 1950s
o Later worked at Philips Labs in Briarcliff Manor, NY
o Joined Columbia as professor of materials science in 1985
o Her patents led to laser and LED technologies used in laser print engines, DVD players, computers, instrument panels and background lighting in cell phone screens.
o In March, 2008, she sued LG, Nokia, Pioneer, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba for patent violations
o She received settlements totaling $27 million according to her lawyer, Albert Jacobs.

- A company finally shows a desktop color inkjet printer based on Memjet technology. Details:
o Company is Astro Machine Corp. of Illinois
o Unit will be called AstroJet Color Page Printer
o 1600x1600 dpi and 1600x800dpi modes
o Lower resolution delivers up to 3600 letter size pages per hour
 Unlike traditional inkjet models, coverage does not slow down print speed
o Can also handle up to 9,000 number 10 envelopes per hour
o Maximum sheet size of 9.5”x17”
o Maximum paper thickness of 0.5mm
o USB port
o Weighs 75lbs.
o 20”Wx24”Lx17.25”H
o Pricing and ship date not announced

Impact Networking, a dealer with locations in Illinois and Wisconsin, announced it has adopted Pickard Elementary School in Chicago, providing its 432 elementary students with Christmas gifts.

- FM Audit Inc. of Jefferson City, MO announced it has added a “Green Reporting” feature to its managed print services software that will allow dealers to provide info to customers on their printer’s paper consumed, supply usage and power consumption.

- Fuji Xerox president, Tadahito Yamamoto, gave an interview to the press about future of printing business:
o Company is three years into reinvention as a managed print services provider
o Due to maturing hardware markets, is scrambling to diversify its revenue mix
o Spent $761 to build the Yokohama Minatomirai research and development facility
o Will spend $755 million on R&D this fiscal
o Company’s current ingrained hardware manufacturing culture is proving difficult to change
o Looks to IBM as role model

- Sony Corp. announced it is selling its digital photo printer division (dye sublimation technology) to Dai Nippon, which currently makes the Screen color inkjet production printing systems.

- Notable Solutions Inc. (NSi) reports that 25,000 customers now have one of its AutoStore document capture server solutions.
- Toshiba announced it is entering the portable data center market, and has opened up a demo center in Tokyo. It hopes for $240 million in revenue for this new division by 2015.

- Toshiba announced that its total worldwide revenue last year was $69 billion, but that its TEC division (which offers MFPs & printers) was only $2 billion.

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Industry Notes from Around the World!

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!Take a moment and join the largest group of copier professionals in the world. Here's the link for the P4P Hotel forums

- Intel announced it is spending $1.4 billion to buy Infineon, maker of wireless network technology, which is found in Apple products.

- Adobe announced it will partner with Monotype Imaging to provide print drivers to MFP and printer makers. The two companies will offer a package that includes PCL, PostScript and XPS drivers, to compete against other makers like Global Graphics & Zoran.

- Hewlett Packard announced it won a managed print services contract from AIB in Ireland.

o 5 year contract

o Reduced fleet from one device for every 4 employees to one for every 12

o Included MFPs and LaserJet 4250dtn and Color LaserJet 4700dtn laser printers

o Included SafeCom solution to allow ID card readers on devices for authentication

o Claims to have reduced operating costs from 20-30%

- Hewlett Packard is sued. About 1 year ago, HP announced a partnership with large commercial printer, R.R. Donnelley, to develop variable data technologies. Now R.R. Donnelley has filed a lawsuit against HP over alleged patent violations, claiming that the violations are “willful and deliberate.”

- Hewlett Packard is fighting a claim by security firm, Zscaler Labs, that hackers can use the Webscan feature to capture images from documents that are left in Hewlett Packard scanners and MFPs that have an embedded Web server. Michael Sutton of Zscaler Labs claims that he was able to find many HP scanners on the Internet.

- Hewlett Packard announced it sold an Indigo 7000 production color system to Color By, a printshop in Italy.

- Hewlett Packard agreed to pay $55 million to settle claims it paid kickbacks so companies would recommend its products to U.S. government agencies.

- Hewlett Packard announced it won an $800 million bid to provide laptops and desktop PCs to U.S. Air Force.

- Hewlett Packard won a bidding war against Dell over both companies’ attempt to buy 3PAR Corp., which make data storage technology for cloud computing. HP will pay $2.1 billion for the firm. Details on 3PAR:

o founded 11 years ago by former Sun Microsystems employees

o original stock price was $10 per share, but sold at $33 per share

o the letters “P”, “A” and “R” stand for names of three founders

o based in Fremont, CA

o 670 employees

- Hewlett Packard announced study by BLI that apparently shows end users will have less print quality and service issues if they use official HP ColorLok paper with their color laser devices. Using ColorLok paper supposedly will lead to 4 times fewer faults and more than 4 times fewer paper path obstructions.

- IBM Corp. has beat a breach of contract lawsuit that accused the company of shorting a current sales rep on a commission he claimed he was owed in connection with a $3.8 million in licensing feeds Motorola Corp. paid IBM for software patents.

- IBM claims it has developed the world’s fastest microprocessor chip, running at 5.2GHz.

- Epson is fighting to keep an internal report private in a lawsuit. Apparently it was released by a disgruntled former executive, and may detail a misrepresentation of the quality of Epson inkjet cartridges.

- International Data Corporation (IDC) gave out it findings of worldwide market sales of printers and MFPs in last quarter:

o Includes inkjet and laser devices, from desktop to printshop

o total market grew 20%

o 29 million units shipped

o Total value increased by 14% to $13.3 billion

o B/w laser MFPs grew 39.7% (the first time that b/w had more growth than color)

o Color laser MFPs grew 33%

o HP shipped 2.8 million laser units, and 11.9 units total including inkjet

o Samsung color laser MFPs grew 55% to 108,731 units

o Samsung b/w laser MFPs grew 54% to 500,777 units

o 9 million total laser based units shipped

o 66% of market belonged to inkjet technology (primarily home use devices)

o Inkjet grew 14% to 19 million units

o 78% of inkjet units were MFPs

o In U.S., total shipments grew 14.4%

- Ricoh announced it sold an Aficio PRO C720s production color system to Noel-Baker School and Language College in England.

- Kodak announced a new solution partnership for its high speed scanners. The Kodak scanners, with the optional Kodak Capture Pro Software, now integrates with CAPSYS CAPTURE to create workflows for document management systems.

- In a study of 410 small companies conducted by 1&1 Internet Ltd:

o 37% reported that money is lost from employees failing to share updated versions of documents

o 53% are held back by poor archiving of emails and documents

o 59% of business owners are unable to amend documents when they are off premises

o Over half of business owners believe that their staff is wasting money with excessive printing

- IT departments across the country are facing a looming Microsoft Windows 7 migration deadline, as support for Windows XP will end in 4 years. Gartner study shows:

o Many are starting their migrations at end of 2010

o IT budgets will need to increase between 20% to 60% to accommodate the updates

o Cost of IT labor will also increase

o Estimated migration cost per PC will be between $1205 and $1999

o Capital costs account for 60% of total replacement cost

o Average business will have to replace 25% of its PC early

- The Marin County Board of Supervisors of California voted to stop the implementation of an SAP project, and admitted to wasting over $30 million when it awarded the SAP project to Deloitte Consulting. Marin County has sued Deloitte to get its money back.

- Worldox, maker of document management systems (DMS) to the legal industry, announced it won a contract from Hoskin, Farina & Kampf, a law firm in Colorado. Total cost = $32,975.00

- Microsoft was forced to apologize to attendees of a tradeshow in Australia. The company had hired female models for its booth, but apparently was unaware that they would show up wearing bikinis.

- Microsoft cofounder, Paul Allen is suing Apple, Google and 9 other companies claiming they are violating patents he owns

- Apple has sued Kodak, claiming it violated some of its digital camera patents.

- NER Data Corp, which was a maker of compatible toner cartridges, announced it has sold that business, and now plans on becoming a national provider of managed print services, using genuine HP cartridges.

- Lexmark was ordered by a judge to pay $8.3 million to compensate its California employees for a flawed “use it or lose it” vacation pay policy. Judge Greg Alarcon ruled that 178 employees should be compensated for vacation time they did not use before they were terminated.

- Sharp announced it hired Eric Hafter, to run its new Solar Energy Solutions Group, reporting to CEO, Kozo Takahashi.


- Now that Peerless has sold its print controller business to Kyocera, it only has 4 employees in a 2,000 square foot office, and is part owner of Highbury Financial.


- Sharp announced a new A3 color laser MFP, called the MX-2310F featuring:

o 23ppm top speed

o 4 tandem OPC drum design

o New compact design, smaller than other Sharp A3 color MFPs

o Uses a polymer resin frame, to reduce weight of main unit by one third of other SharA3 color MFPs (is this first copier to have a frame that is not made of metal?)

o Uses 77% less power

o Uses LEDs in scanning section instead of fluorescent lamps

o Faster warm up time

o Standby mode uses only 1 watt of power

o Uses new Sharp Microtoner HG2 toner

o 7” touch screen LCD control panel

o Ship data and pricing not yet announced

- A 44 year old man is being pursued in United Arab Emirates after attempting to cash two fake $1 million dollar bills made on a color copier.

- Bret Rhind and Debra Roberson of Missouri were charged with making fake currency using a color copier after they attempted to spend it at Walmart, Target and Lowes. The phony cash was passed in 19 states, and included fake $50 and $100 bills.

- Pitney Bowes announced that it spent $210,000 in the second quarter of 2010 to lobby the federal government. The company’s FM division, called PMBS, is now run by Vicki O’Meara, who was hired after the division reported a 5% drop in revenue in early 2010

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Notes from 8/30/09

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

Toshiba’s copier division in the U.S., called Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) announced it has hired Jive Software of Portland, Oregon to develop a social business network to connect its sales, service, admin and corp. professionals. Cost not announced. Will be called Toshiba eXCHANGE and include:
- Detailed profiles of members allowing users to connect directly with Toshiba employees
- Blogs that will keep members aware of ongoing product and program updates
- Video clips that will provide product info
- Content ratings
- RSS feeds that mark key interest areas
- Intelligent searches

Printable Technologies announced that its variable data software, FusionPro, will now support the AFP print file format from IBM. It also is now compatible with DirectSmile personalization software.

Hewlett Packard won a bid from the City of Langford, Canada for an undisclosed number of HP LaserJet MFPs. This was to change a situation of; “a printer next to a copier next to a fax machine”. The new contract will supposedly save the city $375,000 per year, and included Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Notable Solutions Inc.’s AutoStore software.

Xerox won a bid from Fayetteville-Perry Elementary School district in Ohio. Revenue and total units not announced, but it is a 5 year cost per copy lease.

More details on the bid that Xerox won from Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio, Texas:
- facilities management contract
- covers 23 different facilities
- claims it will save the healthcare facilities “millions per year”.
- decision maker was Geoff Crabtree, Senior VP
- reduced forms used from 1,200 to 300
- 25,000,000 impressions total per year
- 2 million b/w forms used monthly
- 1 million color brochures printed annually
- Includes an iGen4 production color system, Nuvera 120MX production b/w system and
Nuvera 120EA DPS production b/w system with booklet maker

Xerox announced it has sold three of its new 700 Digital Color Press production color system to three different printshops in South Africa. The buyers were Copy Wizards, Hot Ink and Top Copy.

Amcom Office Systems announced it won a 5 year contract to supply MFPs to the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County in Pennsylvania. Details:
- The contract will supposedly save county tax payers $2.3 million.
- County will take delivery of 406 units
- Is a 5 year cost per copy lease
- Based on minimum volume of 3.2 million copies per month
- Total value of contract of $2.6 million, or 47% less than prior contract
- County will remove many, but not all, of its desktop printers
- The City will take delivery of 105 units, and supposedly will save $38,000 per year
- The Allegheny County Airport Authority will take delivery of 18 units


Sappi Fine Papers North America announced it is closing its paper mill in Muskegon, Michigan due to declining sales.

Sharp announced that it will offer DocuLex software, made in Winter Haven, FL, as an optional embedded application for its MFPs.

Sharp will hold its annual dealer meeting in Washington DC from 8/31 to 9/2/09.

Sharp dealer, Advanced Business Systems of Molina, Iowa, is growing. Its new 11,000 square foot facility will be at 4631 44th Street. Owner Jim Soucinek started the company in 1970, and now has 23 employees, and also sells and services Lexmark & HP products.

Gartner Research reports that shipments of MFPs are down 25% in 2009, versus 2008. “In the worst case scenario could hit 30%” stated senior analyst Todd Prabhakar.

Apple releases its new operating system, Snow Leopard, and went on sale on 8/28/09 as a $29 upgrade. The new system uses far less memory than its predecessors, but must be run on an Intel based Macintosh computer.

Epson Corp. pleaded guilty to price fixing when it sold LCDs to Motorola for its Razr cell phone, and will pay a fine of $26 million

Hewlett Packard has been hit with a patent infringement suit by Acacia Research Corp., over videoconferencing technology.

Toshiba & Hitachi are supposedly planning on jointly making hard disk drives, using new nanotechnology to boost recording density. The Japanese government supposedly will invest $48 million in the new venture, which will ship new products in 2012.

The Equipment Leasing & Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index reported that new business volume of declined by 35.1% as compared to same period in 2008. Other data:
- receivable over 30 days increased by 18.2%
- charge-offs increased by 56.1%
- credit approvals now at 65.5% as compared with 73.3% last year
- 47% of leasing companies reported decrease in transactions

Global Graphics & Conexant announced that they will jointly develop print controllers for printer and MFP makers.:
- Global Graphics purchased Harlequin PostScript technology in 1999
- Harlequin acquired JAWS PDF technology in 2000
- Conexant purchased Freescale print controller technology for just $16.1 million in 2008
- Freescale acquired this technology from SigmaTel in 2008 for $110 million
- SigmaTel acquired this technology in 2007 for $57 million.

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 8/09/09

Special Thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members for this! Go ahead become a member of the fasting growing social network for copier people! Print4Pay Hotel
8-9-09

Toshiba’s president, Norio Sasaki, stated the following during a press briefing in Tokyo:
- It plans on coming out of the downturn by expanding its energy, healthcare and
environment-related businesses
- Expects its nuclear plant division to be its most profitable division by 2012
- Nuclear energy expansion “will provide a basis for strong growth”
- Predicts this division will bring it $3.7 billion in profit by 2012
- Will cut fixed costs by 330 billion yen this year
- Will cut spending in research & development in other business units to 1 trillion yen
from 1.17 trillion yen
- cut its profit forecast from $5.2 billion to $2.6 billion for the year
- cuts its sales estimates by 25% to 7.5 trillion yen
- posted a record 343.6 billion yen net loss last fiscal year
- it expects orders for 39 nuclear reactors by 2015
- “the results in fiscal year 2008 were dreadful”
- “starting with restoring the capital base, we aim to transform ourselves into a
company with a solid financial footing to start again for further growth”

Toshiba won a $116 million bid to supply two steam turbine engines for a coal plant in Vietnam.

During its 2009 Regional Summit, Toshiba’s President & COO, Mark Mathews announced:
- its managed print program is now 6 years old
- has 1 billion pages per month in its MPS program.
- Announced that Toshiba has entered into a “Strategic Agreement” with Hewlett Packard, apparently allowing it access to Hewlett Packard printers and MFPs (branches and dealers may now start marketing HP products in addition to Toshiba products)
- MPS program is called “Encompass 3.0” and is run by Jon Hafey,
Director Program Management & Service Delivery

Comdoc, a dealer in Ohio recently acquired by Xerox, announced it won a $80,000 bid to supply document management for Dimension Service Corp, a warranty company, who supposedly was spending $240,000 per year on outsourced scanning/storage services for 80,000 documents per month. The solution included 5 Kodak desktop scanners and DocuWare software, according to Director of Sales, Dan Nihiser.

Sandy Jones and Nicole Moses were arrested in New Hampshire after allegedly making fake currency using a color copier. Both women were arrested after they use a fake $50 bill to buy lottery tickets.

Heidelberg is apparently working on a high speed color inkjet production print system. The company has invested in inkjet printhead maker, Spectra, and plans to launch a new product named Linoprint.

Forrester Research predicts the following marketing methods will see increases:
- social media = 34%
- mobile marketing = 27%
- display advertising = 17%
- search marketing = 15%
- email marketing = 11%

Hewlett Packard announced it now has a total of 5,000 Indigo production color systems installed worldwide. The product was first shipped in 1993, when Indigo was an independent company, before it was acquired by HP in 2002 for $800 million. According to InfoTrends, the supply cost per page on the new Indigo 7000 is only 2 cents.

Hewlett Packard announced it plans on launching “Cloud-Print”. This service will allow end users to print from their Blackberry device to any printer connected to the Internet. Launch date and cost unknown.

Kodak announced it has sold a NexPress S2500 production color system to a print shop in Italy named Grafostampa.

The U.S. Postal Service, despite implementing $6 billion in cost cutting measures, announced it will still lose a whopping $2.4 billion. It now has reported a loss for 11 of the last 12 quarters.

EFI announced that since it offered its version 5.0 of Fiery Command WorkStation free upgrade, that 10,000 users have downloaded the software.

Printable Technologies, maker of the popular FusionPro variable data software, announced a record quarter for sales and profits.

According to WhatTheyThink.com, commercial printing shipments were down 12.2%, and printing volume was down 9.7%.

InfoTrends released the following list of top features for production print systems:
- Overall fastest system is the Kodak Versamark VX5000 color inkjet system at 750 feet per minute
- Fastest cut sheet toner system in the Hewlett Packard Indigo 7000 at 120ppm
- Fastest cut sheet color inkjet system is the Riso HC5500 at 120ppm
- Fastest color MFP is the Ricoh Aficio Color MP7500 at 75ppm
- Largest cut sheet paper capability is the Xerox iGen4 at 14.33” x 22.5”
- Longest image possible is the color LED Punch Graphix Xeikon 8000
which is unlimited with rolls of paper
- Most flexible cut sheet media handling is the NexPress from 16lb. bond to 130lb. cover
- Most flexible roll fed media handling is the Punch Graphix Xeikon 8000 from 27lb. text to 122lb. cover

Epson has filed patent infringement suit against a company in California who refills Epson print cartridges. Green Project Inc. of Hacienda Heights, filed a countersuit claiming it is doing nothing wrong.

Great America Leasing announced that it has hired famous sales training author, Steven Power, to provide training to dealers who plan to succeed in managed print services.

- Kyocera announced version 5.0 of its KYOcapture option for its MFPs:
- Actually is a relabeled version of Notable Solutions Inc. (NSI) AutoStore software
- Has customizable user interface
- Software is loaded onto customer’s server
- Provides a document capture workflow solution
- Improved bi-directional search functionality
- Retrieve indexing data from databases
- Browse folders across network

Kyocera announced that it is partnering with Wells Fargo and GreatAmerica to provide leasing options for its dealers.

Kyocera announced that in the U.S., it has shipped just over 1800 of the new TASKalfa color MFPs. It claims that the TASKalfa name will be on 23 different MFP and printer models.

Creo print servers received accolades from the International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization, as achieving the highest level of connectivity to third party workflow solutions. CIP4 measures vendor’s compatibility with the new Job Definition Format, or JDF standards.

EFI announced results of its second quarter’s financials:
- Total revenue of $90.1 million compared with $143.8 million last year
- GAAP net loss was $13.3 million
- GAAP net income was $13.4 million
- 14% growth in inkjet business
- Operating expenses reduced by 22%

Sharp announced it will hold its next dealer meeting during week of 8/31/09 at the Gaylord Resort in Washington D.C.

Okidata announced that it is replacing its CEO of its North American division. Out is Stewart Krentzman, after 12 years with the company. He is replaced by Takabumi Asahi from Japan.

Okidata announced it will offer PrintFleet managed print service software to its dealers.

-=Good Selling=-

Wide Format "Start a New Profit Center"

Over the years I've been in a few facilities that have many wide format machines. What's the one thing that's missing from most of these scenario's, there's no ability to track or bill the prints for different systems from different manufacturers! Your job is too go back to those accounts especially now, and a recent industry study concluded that:

-Companies are looking to save money and
now have an expense reduction focus

−Staff reductions are forcing companies to review how they are using their hardware and print services

−Reduced end user resistance to giving up their desktop printer and consolidating to a networked device shared by multiple users

Enter Ratio Plotbase! Here's some information I gathered for all!

RATIO PLOTBASE & Scan Software offers many features and benefits for most wide format plotters & scanners. Their experience in making everything work together well, even in complex, multi product installations can turn the tide from customer dismay to full satisfaction. To check out what their solutions can do, Just give RATIO a call to schedule a 30 - 40 minute interactive demo that can focus on;

Wide format tracking / accounting for one or more LED / Ink Jet plotters & Scanners.

Wide format plotting issues & workflow such as PDF batch plotting for embedded or external controllers or Ink Jets

New Scan software for Wide Format Scanners that can integrate Copy tracking with plotting to multiple devices. Also full color image editing features

RIP CUBE high performance hardware RIP alternative to regular Windows PCs, with pre-installed plotting / scanning software, built in recovery drive and complete support from RATIO

General Improvements for plotting workflow to your WF Ink Jets, LED plotter / scanners and small to mid-size printers for AEC users

Keeping your plotting software up to date with latest Autocad HDI drivers, PDF versions, Windows versions for any embedded or external or WF Ink Jet plotter

http://www.plotbasepm.com
http://www.cadstationpro.com

-=Good Selling=-

Japanese Printer Companies in WWII "Fire Balloon"

Brother during World War II was know as Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company in 1934. Prior to 1934 they were known as Yasui Sewing Machine Co, and was founded by Kaneschi Yasui. When the started in 1941 Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company aka Brother Sales Ltd had to switch from manufacturing commerical sewing machines to indsutrial sewing machines. Not much information was available if Brother produced any additional products for the war effort. However, it was noted that many of their factories received extensive war damage.

Epson started in 1941 as Daiwa Kogyo LTD and was located in Suwa, Nagano, Japan. Not much information was available for Daiwa Kogyo during the war effort, however Daiwa Kogyo was part of the Sieko conglomerate. Sieko like many other Japanese companies were ordered to produce military items sucn as time fuses and ammunition.

Now, here's something I never knew in doing some research on timing fuses.

"From late 1944 until early 1945, the Japanese launched over 9,000 of these fire balloons, of which 300 were found or observed in the U.S. Some guesswork gives the total number that made the trip at about 1,000. Despite the high hopes of their designers, the balloons were relatively ineffective as weapons, causing only six deaths and a small amount of damage, and they survive in memory mostly as an ingenious and dangerous curiosity."

Geez, I wonder if this can still happen today, could these ballons go undetected?? Want to read more about the Fire Balloon!

Hitachi started in 1910 by Namihei Odaira, they specialized in manufacturing small 5 horsepower electric motors. In 1920 the name was chamged to Hitachi, LTD.

"The rise of the Japanese military government in the 1930s forced some changes at Hitachi. Although Odaira struggled to maintain corporate independence, his company was nonetheless pressured into manufacturing war material, including radar and sonar equipment for the Imperial Navy. Odaira, however, was successful in preventing Hitachi from manufacturing actual weapons.

World War II and its aftermath devastated the company. Many of its factories were destroyed by Allied bombing raids, and after the war, American occupational forces tried to disband Hitachi altogether. Founder Odaira was removed from the company."

-=Good Selling=-

HP & Other Office Equipment Profits Plunge!

Special thanx to a Print4Pay Hotel member for this information:

- Canon reported its last quarter’s financials:

- Revenue down from 1 trillion yen to 700 billion yen
- Net income down from 107 billion yen to 17.7 billion yen
- Net sales down 31.8%
- imaging revenue down 35.1%
- operating earnings fell 63.8%
- printer sales down 41.9%
- cut its research & development spend from $808 million to $739 million
- Copier sales down 34.7%
- Profit down 63.8%
- forecasts that its operating margin will be only 5.1% compared with 12.1% last year

- Hewlett Packard gave out details of its second quarter fiscal
year performance:
- profits fell 17% to $1.7 billion
- sales dropped 5%
- currently has 321,000 employees
- will build a $260 data center in Colorado Springs,
will close a call center their that employs 800
- will build a call center in Rio Rancho, NM to employ 1,350
- overall, will let go of 6,400 employees to cut costs
- mandatory 5% cut in company wide salaries
- printer sales down 31%


- Fuji (maker of most Xerox products) reported its last quarter’s financials:

- Revenue down from 709 billion yen to 530 billion yen
- Operating income down 42.7%


- Lexmark reported its last quarter’s financials:

- operating profit down 40%
- revenue down 20% to $944 million
- printer/MSP sales down 30%
- announced it had won managed print services bids from
Boeing, Coca-Cola and Union Bank of California
- overhead will be cut by $47 million
- operating expenses cur by $32 million
- will close its Juarez, Mexico inkjet cartridge plant


- Epson reported its last quarter’s financials:

- Revenue declined from 310 billion yen to 216 billion yen
- Net income declined from a loss of 3 billion yen to loss of 123 billion yen
- Sales down 30.4%

- Peerless, maker of generic print controllers, announced its
last quaterfinancials
- Revenue declined from $9.3 million to $2.2 million
- Gross margin decreased from 65.2% to 30.3%

- Samsung announced its last quarter’s financials:

- Net income dropped 72%
- Revenue rose 9%


- Sharp reported its last quarter’s financials:

- Revenue was down from 3.4 trillion yen to 2.8 trillion yen
- Net income was down from 101.9 billion yen to a loss of 125 billion yen
- Copier sales down 14.4%

- Zoran, maker of generic print controllers, reported its last quarter’s financials:

- Revenue declined from $109 million to $68 million
- Net income declined from loss of $4.7 million to a loss of $21 million

- Brother reported its last quarter’s financials:

- Revenue fell 25% to $1.43 billion
- Posted operating loss of $39 million
- Printer sales down 20.4%

-=Good Selling=-

Ink Printing "Memjet" Awesome Speeds

Memjet, I've seen the videos and they are awesome, from the information below it seems Memjet will only make the componets for another manufacturer. At this time there is no info on what manufacturer will hold the keys to kingdom.

My thinking is Epson, Canon or HP, or maybe all three, we'll have to see. You've got to check out the video. It's AWESOME!

- More details on Memjet Technology, the company that promised to revolutionize the industry with a low cost, high speed color inkjet system:
o was invented by Kia Silverbrook of Australia
o Company is backed by two wealthy investors:
 Ray Stata, cofounder and chairman of Analog Devices, a $2.5 billion Massachusetts-based semiconductor company
 George Kaiser, the twentieth-richest American, a Oklahoma oil, gas and banking mogul with assets of $12 billion
o First product will ship in late 2009
o Prototype shown to industry reporters offered:
o 60ppm top speed for low quality mode (1600x800dpi)
o 30ppm top speed for high quality mode (1600x1600dpi)
o Uses five rows of page wide inkjet printhead arrays
o Possible selling price of $499
o 2300 patents issued so far, with 2000 pending
o Plan is to sell low cost replacement ink rather than expensive cartridges, as inkjet heads have long life
o Memjet will make components only, and its OEM partners will actually make and market the printers (the identity of the electronics makers that will market Memjet is still being kept secret)

MFP Weekend Industry Notes

Thanx for this!


- Hewlett Packard announced results of its last quarter’s financials:
o $33.6 billion total revenue, up 19% (this included revenue from recently acquired EDS)
o Up only 2% if factoring out EDS
o Gross operating margin down 1.1%
o Net earnings down to $2.1 billion from $2.2 billion
o Imaging & Printing Group revenue fell 1% to $7.5 billion
o Consumer printer unit shipments fell 8%
o LaserJet printer and Indigo sales down 9%
o Color LaserJet printer sales down 13%
o Printer consumable sales up 9% (partially due to a 2% price increase)
o LaserJet MFP sales up 25%
o More than half of HP’s profit ($1.2 billion of $2.4 billion) is from supplies sold to in place HP printers

- During a recent trade show, Hewlett Packard announced that it plans to launch segment 4 and segment 5 copier/MFPs to compete against other A3 manufacturers. Other details:
o Quote from David Murphy, Chief of LaserJet & Enterprise Solutions Group; “The Edgeline expansion path is into light production, not into copier segments” (this is given as reason why new HP copier models will be laser instead of inkjet as used in Edgeline)
o since HP outsources for all laser engines, Mr. Murphy did not announce whether Canon would be the provider for these new color copiers (Canon provides HP with all other laser engines it currently sells)
o 4 different models will be launched, from 70ppm to 90ppm in speed
o In the past, HP has tried to go upstream in the laser copier/MFP market by sourcing from a variety of manufacturers including, Fuji, Konica, Canon, etc., without much success

- HP also detailed its success with Managed Print Services contracts:
o Claims it currently has 3,000 customers under a managed print services contract
 Collects $60 million per year from 3M
 Also has Ford Motor Corp. under contract
 75 of the contracts cover devices worldwide
 Current customer, Viacom, claims that when it moved to HP MPS contract, it removed 4,000 devices and supposedly is saving 25% per year
• When asked how he got employees to give up their personal desktop printers, Viacom CIO, James Simon, stated; “We told resistors to send an e-mail to the CFO to explain why they had to keep their personal printer. Not one sent an e-mail.”

- DocuWare gives out the following references for end users using its document management software:
o Fletcher Jones Mercedes Benz dealership in Newport Beach, CA
o Douglas County, Oregon
o Corrigan Dispatch Company of Texas
o Corsicana Bedding Inc. of Texas
o City of Niles, Michigan

- Xerox gave a sneak peak to analysts in Wilsonville, Oregon on 11/17/08 on a new 2009 product. Details:
o is designed to compete against traditional floor-standing, A3 color laser MFPs
o will compete against the Hewlett Packard Edgeline color inkjet A3 MFPs
o will not be laser-based and use toner, instead will use hot melted wax, as currently used in some, not all, desktop “Phaser” models
o will offer different speeds (fastest speed reached in low quality mode)



- Xerox announced it has sold a Xerox 700 Digital Color Press to Noel Tatt Group Inc, a printshop, that will use the 70ppm device to create personalized greeting cards.

- Xerox announced a new software option for its production print systems, called FreeFlow Express to Print featuring:
o visual graphic user interface
o job ticketing
o prepress functions
o drag and drop to add tabs, covers, chapter starts and watermarks
o screen shows a graphic representation of each page
o includes 70 templates
o page numbering
o Bates numbering
o Bar codes
o Pricing unannounced

- IBM announced that Xerox will be its preferred equipment provider for its facilities management division, named IBM Managed Business Process Services. (In the past, IBM used its own InfoPrint division, which relabeled Ricoh gear. Now that Ricoh purchased this division from IBM, this relationship is apparently severed)

- Konica Minolta announced it has completed construction of a new acoustic test laboratory in Mizhuho, Japan. The site, which received ISO/IEC 17025*1 accreditation, will use 10 super sensitive microphones to measure the noise level of future bizhub MFPs. This will insure that they continue to meet and surpass government guidelines.

- Zink Inc., a company formed by the former film division of Konica Minolta, announced a new digital camera with a built-in color thermal transfer printer, called the “XIAO TIP-521”, and offers 5 megapixel capture. Camera will most likely sell for $365.

- Inventors Josh Grob and Oleksiy Pikalo have developed an inkjet printer that can be used to create a pattern of sugar on top of the foam atop lattes and cappuccinos. Their company will be called “OnLatte Inc.”. They are looking for a $200,000 investment to get the company off the ground.

- Toshiba announced it will delay the construction of two new computer chip plants in Japan, costing $3.9 billion, due to weakening demand worldwide.

- Former IKON executive, Clair Christensen, was hired as VP of Business Development by Standley Systems of Oklahoma. Clair was formerly IKON’s marketplace president in charge of Kansas and Oklahoma operations.

- Lexmark is affected by recent financial crisis. Apparently, the company had $4.4 million worth of bonds held by Lehman Brothers, which just went bankrupt.

- More info on the new A4 b/w laser MFP from Lexmark, the X658:
o Top speed of 55ppm b/w
o Copy/scan/print
o Base MSRP of $3799
o Optional fax
o 50 sheet document feeder
o Auto duplex
o Optional stapling finisher
o Letter and legal size only
o Cost per page for toner only is $0.024 per page
o Customer must also buy:
o Fuser rollers
o Oil fuser wiper
o Wax fuser wiper
o Dual charge rollers
o Pick roll assembly
o RADF maintenance kit



- Street pricing seen recently in a bid in the Midwest that included one of the new Frontier series A4 color MFP models from Sharp:
o Sharp MX-C311
 31ppm top speed
 Letter and legal size paper only
 50 sheet document feeder
 Auto duplex
 One 500 sheet paper drawer standard
 100 sheet stack bypass
 Did not include staple finisher
 Includes print/scan controller
• 800MHz processor
• 80GB hard drive
• PCL & PostScript print drivers
 Total bid price was $3899.00
o B/w clicks @ $0.021 and color clicks for $0.05 (while the color click price is very aggressive, the b/w click price is very high)


- Ricoh now offering a new scanning solution for its MFPs, called GlobalScan NX offering:
o Can capture document through scanning from MFP, and distribute it to e-mail inbox or fax number
o File document directly to network folders
o Can drag and drop icons to create pre-defined fields
o Can modify the workflow behind the button on the copier control panel
o LDAP, NT and Kerberos Authentication
o Pricing not announced

- Ricoh announced that it has promoted Mark Minshull to VP and Chief Technologist overseeing solution technologies.



- Ricoh announced it will spend $20 million to open up product showroom in Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

- Ricoh gave out more details of its upcoming entry level A3 color laser MFPs (which will compete with the new Sharp Frontier series), and will be called the Ricoh Aficio MP 2000 series offering:
o Aficio MP C2030spf (scan/print/fax)
 20ppm color or b/w top speed
 4 tandem OPC drum design
 Ricoh PxP toner (polymerized)
• Black toner yield of 10,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
• Color toners yield of 5,500 each
 600x600dpi
 4 line LCD display
 512MB RAM
 TWAIN scanning standard
 No hard drive available
 Up to 11”x17” in drawers, and up to 12”x18” in bypass
 No finishing available
 Base MSRP of $5500.00
 Tentative cost per color click of $0.084
o Aficio MP C2050 is same as MP 2030 but also offers:
 Large color touch screen LCD control panel
 Optional 50 sheet stapling finisher
 Optional hole punch
 Scan to e-mail/FTP/SMB/USB
 Hard drive
 MSRP of $5800.00
o Aficio MP C2550 is same as MP C2050 except it offers:
 25ppm top speed color or b/w
 Base MSRP of $7500.00

- Ricoh’s InfoPrint division (IPS) announced it will resell the Printelligence software from Preo Software Inc., to assist the company in offering managed print services.

- Canon’s Managing Director, Masahiro Osawa, told Reuters New Service in an interview that the company will pursue acquisitions of copier dealers in the U.S. to strengthen its sales network in the U.S. after losing IKON to Ricoh.

- Canon announced it has sold an imagePRESS C7000VP production color system to The Processors, a printshop in Irwindale, CA.

- Kodak announced it has sold a NexPress S2500 production color system to Evergreen Printing of New Jersey.

- More details on Memjet Technology, the company that promised to revolutionize the industry with a low cost, high speed color inkjet system:
o was invented by Kia Silverbrook of Australia
o Company is backed by two wealthy investors:
 Ray Stata, cofounder and chairman of Analog Devices, a $2.5 billion Massachusetts-based semiconductor company
 George Kaiser, the twentieth-richest American, a Oklahoma oil, gas and banking mogul with assets of $12 billion
o First product will ship in late 2009
o Prototype shown to industry reporters offered:
o 60ppm top speed for low quality mode (1600x800dpi)
o 30ppm top speed for high quality mode (1600x1600dpi)
o Uses five rows of page wide inkjet printhead arrays
o Possible selling price of $499
o 2300 patents issued so far, with 2000 pending
o Plan is to sell low cost replacement ink rather than expensive cartridges, as inkjet heads have long life
o Memjet will make components only, and its OEM partners will actually make and market the printers (the identity of the electronics makers that will market Memjet is still being kept secret)

- Details reported on Oce’s last quarter’s financials:
o Total revenue down 7.1%
o According to chairman, Rokus van Iperen, the firm was hurt by a slump in orders from financial-services firms for continuous-feed machines (used to print account statements and other transactional documents)
o Consumable revenue down 7%
o Operating earnings down 20.7%
o Operating loss of 11.2 million euros
o Net loss of 23.7 million euros
o Wide format sales down 4.5%
o FM revenue up 5.9%\

- Kyocera announced it has purchased Action Copiers of Victoria, Australia. The company also named Bill Kohler as its northeast regional sales manager in the U.S.

- Epson introduced the world’s first true disposable color inkjet printer. The Epson EC-101 color MFP has built-in ink bags. When the unit runs out of ink, the customer returns it to Epson, who refills it and puts it back up for sale.

- Data from InfoTrends about sales of MFPs in the U.S. in 2007:
o 283,244 color MFPs placed (A3 & A4)
o 1,180,466 b/w MFPs placed (A3 & A4)
o Currently, there are a total of 8.6 million copiers installed, and 24.3 million workgroup printers installed in businesses in the U.S. (does not include personal printers in the office)

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 11-23-08

Special thanx to the person who complies this!

A copier dealer in Dallas launches a website to sell printers nationwide. David Gu, who founded Meridian Office Systems Inc. in 1994, announced the new portal www.printerdallas.com featuring:
Supplies for most brands of printers
Desktop machines from Okidata, Panasonic, Xerox & Muratec.

Kyocera launched three new desktop A4 color laser printers, the FS-5100DN, FS-5200DN and FS-5300DN featuring:
4 tandem amorphous silicon ceramic drum design
Does not offer 8 bits per pixel
Advertised as offering 9600dpi (actual is 600dpi)
Engine design is very similar to Xerox Phaser models (but apparently is not made by Fuji)
FS-5100DN offers 21ppm b/w or color w/533MHz for base MSRP of $899
FS-5200DN offers 21ppm b/w or color w/667MHz for base MSRP of $1399
FS-5300DN offers 26ppm b/w or color w/667MHz for base MSRP of $1699
Auto duplex
Polymerized toner technology
256MB RAM
Up to 4 paper sources for up to 2,150 sheets of paper capacity
Need option to be able to handle thick or glossy paper

Kyocera announced plans to acquire Triumph-Adler of Germany from Volkswagon AG for $133 million. Triumph-Adler, which got is start making and selling manual typewriters, will give Kyocera a number of factory direct copier selling locations in Europe.

According to research conducted by Bureau of Labor Statistics, here is projected status of print worker types in the U.S.:
Graphic Designers = 286,424, up 9.8%
Desktop Publishers = 32,137 up 1%
Bookbinders – 5,995, down 16.9%
Bindery Workers = 50,697, down 21.8%
Job Printers = 43,749, down 9.3%
PrePress Technicians = 55,959, down 21.1%
Printing Machine Operators = 186,337, down 5.7%
SUMMARY = Not enough young people going to school to become print shop workers

Zoran Corp. of Sunnyvale, CA, which normally gets its revenue from making generic print controllers, announced it is now offering components for digital flat screen TV’s. (for instance Sharp has used Zoran to make its generic print controllers)

A Sharp copier dealer, New Smart Office Automation, announced it will host a quiz show at a local auditorium and give a new Sharp MFP as the grand prize. The quiz topics will be about information technology, printing, and document solutions.

Lanier, a division of Ricoh, announced that its largest dealer in the U.S. is TGI Office Automation of Brooklyn, New York. TGI employs 300 people in branches in New York, New Jersey and Florida. Owner is Frank Grasso.

Rosetta Technologies of Tampa, FL announced it will sell a modified version of a 50ppm Ricoh b/w laser printer so that it will use MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) toner for check printing. It will be called SP 8200DN MICR.

Ricoh announced it has hired former EFI executive, Kathy Wilson, to run its operations in Australia.

Ricoh announced it won a bid with City of Camden, NJ that bundled in docSTAR document management software with its MFPs.

Once Ricoh completed its acquisition of IKON, it supposedly sent folks to IKON’s headquarters in Malvern, PA and removed every piece of equipment inside that did not carry the Ricoh badge.

Ricoh announced it will spend $3 million to install a billboard in Time Square, New York City, that uses wind and solar to power the lighting.

The City of Salem, MA awarded a copier bid to Ricoh. A Ricoh Aficio 6000MP copier was chosen for $227 per month on a 48 month lease. Service/supplies are an additional $87 per month.

After Ricoh bought the printer division (InfoPrint) of IBM, which is headquartered in Boulder, CO, it has begun moving executives from Japan to run the company. Katsuya Ochiai is now the VP of Strategy & Business Development. The existing 550 employees in Boulder will be joined by three other executives who are moving from Japan.

Street pricing seen in the print for pay market:
Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/Creo/Booklet-maker/fold-unit/LCT for $72,400. Color clicks @ $0.049 and b/w clicks @ $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
Xerox DocuColor 252/embedded Fiery/LCT for $31,100. Color clicks @ $0.049 and b/w clicks @ $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
Canon imageRUNNER C5185 w/Fiery/RADF/booklet-maker for $20,300. Color clicks @ $0.055 and b/w clicks @ $0.01. 11”x17” billed as one click.
Xerox 4112 w/Fiery/booklet-maker for $39,400 with b/w clicks @ $0.005 up to 200K/month, with overages @ $0.0039. 11”x17” billed as one click.

Toshiba announced that it now has available connectors for its MFPs for Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint.

A three decade ban on nuclear technology in country of India has ended, and Toshiba announced it will send nuclear engineers to the country to develop relations.

JBM Office Systems, a Toshiba dealer in Ontario, Canada, announced it will hold a “Printer Cost Reduction” conference at its office.

Canon announced that it will move is desktop inkjet printer manufacturing to Thailand in 2010 from Japan to cut costs.

Possibly due to the loss of IKON’s business, Canon announced that it has halted construction of a toner plant in western Japan, that would have cost $1 billion. A company spokesperson said it hoped to start construction of the plant perhaps in late 2009 if business improves.

Canon announced it sold an imagePRESS C7000VP production color system to Printing & Publications of Langhorne, PA.

Konica Minolta’s Planetarium division announced it has sold a GEMINISTAR system to the Gwasheon National Science Museum in Korea. Audiences will now be able to enjoy a real star-field with dome imaging.

Konica Minolta announced it is developing a portable projector that is only 1.6” long, .79” wide, and only 3” thick, roughly the size of a thumbdrive. It will show 20” wide images from 24” away from a screen or wall.

Police in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, are on the lookout for someone passing color copier-made fake $20 bills at local taverns.

Xerox installed six 25,000 gallon tanks as it works to complete a new polymerization toner plant in Webster, New York.

IBM won a bid from the State of Georgia for information technology. The 8 year contract is worth $873 million, and includes IBM sourcing computers from Dell and copiers from Xerox.

Xerox announced it will partner with a software company in India to expand managed print services. HCL, run by Vineet Nayar, will “open new opportunities for Xerox in the high-growth market while bringing sustainable business benefits to more customers worldwide”

When competing against Xerox, remember that if customer chooses NOT to use the preferred Xerox Leasing, the Xerox sales rep will normally charge a higher cost per copy service rate.

Xerox announced new paper products for production color laser systems:
Everflat paper, allows pages in an open book to lay completely flat, rather than bowing or arcing up towards the spine. Available in 80lb. cover weight. Actually made by Fuji Film of Japan.
PhotoPix, a pre-cut tabloid sheet, that pulls apart to yield one 8”x10”, one 5”x7” and 4 wallet size photos.
SportsPix, a letter-sized sheets that is precut to yield trading cards when pulled apart
FunFlip, a letter-size pre-cut sheet , that folds into a 3”x3” cube.
AccordianPix, a letter-size pre-cut sheet that folds into a free-standing panorama of eight images.

According to an article in ProPrint magazine, interesting info on the new Xerox 700 Digital Color Press:
That it is based on the same Fuji-made engine in the DocuColor 260 (also 242 and 252 models)
Sheet to sheet and front to back registration during auto duplex improved from 3mm (in 260) to 1mm
Improved laser assembly to provide more accurate laser dot placement
Runs at 70ppm for uncoated stocks up to 176gsm stocks, slows to 51ppm for 177-256gsm and slows to 35ppm for 300gsm stocks
Coated stocks of 106-176gsm run at 51ppm and 35ppm for heavier than 177gsm
Meant for 20K/month to 75K/month
Decurler added which makes unit 150mm longer than 242/252/260 engine

Hewlett Packard announced it has now placed 130 each of the Indigo 7000 production color systems worldwide which runs at a top speed of 120ppm.

Troy Group Inc. announced it will make a version of the Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3035 MFP that will use MICR toner, and call it the Troy 3035.

Hewlett Packard announced it will resell Readsoft accounts payable software as an option for its printers and MFPs.

The most popular magazine covering the computer industry, PC Magazine, announced it will cease printing the publication. The magazine, which started in 1982, will now only be available on-line.

XMPie, maker of popular high end variable data software, will conduct a video demonstration during the Print World 2008 show in Toronto on 11/22-24/08.

Smart Papers announced a new high gloss stock for production color laser systems. The new KromeKote True-Photo papers, use 30% recycled product, and are available in both 10point and 12point, 12”x18” sheets.

Dell launched new desktop color models:
New series of inkjet printers that are made by Kodak. Previously, all Dell models were sourced from Lexmark.
New color laser models include:
1320C offering A4 color speed of 12ppm for $299
1230C offering A4 color speed of 4ppm for $229
2130CN offers A4 color speed of 16ppm for $349
2135cn MFP offers copy/print/scan/fax and A4 color speed of 12ppm for $549
3130CN offer A4 color speed of 26ppm for $549
3115CN MFP offers A4 copy/print/scan/fax and color speed of 17ppm for $899
5110CN offers A4 color speed of 35ppm for $1349
Extended warranties do NOT includes supplies

Common electronic document search methods:
Boolean – in this type of search, words are placed in between the words to be searched, for example, if you search for “Black and White”, it will find documents with both words.
Fuzzy – retrieves pages that have the word searched both on its own or part of another word, for example, searching for “Key” will yield both “Key” and “Keystone”
Wildcard – allows you to use an asterisk in place of a word or phrase
Relational – finds the words and words that relate to the original search term
Context – can link like subjects based on context of the document

Buyers Labs Inc. gave its pick of the year award in the scanner category to:
Epson GT-1500
Fujitsu fi-6130
Fujitsu fi-6230
Visioneer 480
Fujitsu fi-6670
Fujitsu fi-6770
Panasonic KV-S4085CW/CL

Kodak filed a lawsuit against Samsung and LG over their cell phones. The company claims that they are infringing on Kodak patents through the use of the built-in cameras in their new cell phone models.

According to a report released by Nemertes Research, user demand for the internet will exceed its network capacity in 2 to 4 years. It predicts internet brownouts by 2012.

Okidata announced it will expand its plant in Dalian, China and move production there from Japan.

Lexmark announced that some of its sales and marketing staff will be let go at the end of the calendar year to cut costs.