The Birth of "State of the Art" Copier Technology

There was a recent post on the Print4Pay Hotel forums that was asking members if they inject humor in their copier/mfp demonstrations and if so what were some of those classic wits of humor that we use.  Of course I added by two cents but I also added a paragraph about some of the old technology that was used in copiers before they went digital in the mid nineties.

With one of our Mita (I sold the Adler Royal version), there was a feature that allowed users to white out or black out areas of the copy.  The prospect/user would use a plastic pen to white or black out a section of the document. I would set the user up, give them the pen and state that they need to be very careful with the pen because "inside the pen was the technology that enabled the document to white out or black out" and that if the pen was lost it would cost $300 or so for a replacement. The user then selected the points on the editing board, pressed the copy key and the copy would be edited with either the white out or black out section of the copy. Prospects and users awed when we showed this feature!

This was funny to me because some users actually thought the technology was in the pen and I had a few frantic users calling me that they had lost their pens and needed another. LOL

Another Mita copier had the ability to copy in two colors at the same time. It was always

MFP Wars & The Plain Paper Copier Industry

Most evenings I'll do a little bit of cruising around the web searching for copier information.  I ran across a white paper written by William R. Bolton in 1995 titled "The Plain Paper Copier Industry". 

Basically the paper was an outline of the plain paper copier industry up until 1994 or 95.  I used this paper to research a blog "Top 19 Old Copier Manufacturers That Faded Away".

Just the other day  I had an Anon (Anonymous) response to the blog I wrote for the "final five", it seems I ticked someone off because I projected that Sharp would not be one of the final five left in the industry.  ANON pointed out that although the blog was a nice read, they thought that my projection of Sharp was not correct because Sharp had just started operations of a 2nd manufacturing plant in China that was capable of producing 250,000 MFP's per year.  I responded with the fact that I saw the press release that Sharp is gearing up for the anticipated of more demand, but I think it's more for the Chinese Market Place. Here's the press release.  I'm also taking a guess that since the Great Flood in Thailand and the fact that one of Sharps copier manufacturing plants is located in the area of the Great Flood.  The Sharp factory was not damaged however Sharp had problems with securing parts from other suppliers that were affected.
Which brings me to back to a certain paragraph in the white paper.  History repeats its self right.  The white paper predicted that only 7 to 8 copier manufacturers would be left in the global market place by 1997.  Let's see if we can get this right: 
Xerox, Ricoh, Sharp, Canon, Toshiba, Oce, Mita, Konica, Panasonic and Minolta.  This would be 11 copier manufacturers that were players in 1994.  I did not include Kodak due to the fact that their plain paper copier line was OEM'd by Canon.  I can't remember when but Konica & Minolta merged thus leaving 8 manufacturers somewhere in 2002. 

Top 19 Old Copier Manufacturers that FADED Away!

Did you sell these, did you ever see one, or maybe you weren't even a twinkle in your Mom's eye when these copier manufacturer were the King of the Road!

"Tell Us About Come Old Copier Companies", was a question we posed to our Print4Pay Hotel members about a week ago, as you can see it was very popular thread. Special thanx to all of the P4P'ers for the information they shared!!  Enjoy!

This was truly the Golden Times when selling, prospecting and demo skills whet hand in hand.  I can remember those DEMO days, everyone would load up a copier in their station wagon and then proceed to knock on as many doors as possible in order to conduct a demonstration on the spot!  The winners were the guys who did not come back with the copier but a check or lease/check in hand!

Adler Royal: Headquartered in Mountainside, NJ, these system were manufactured by MITA, one of the first full lines I carried when I owned my own dealership. DSM was Bob Morganthaler (think)

Yorktown: I've only seen one and couldn't even remember the model number, all I can remember is that the system was huge, a dial was used to slect how many copies you wanted. (Art Post)

Yorktown was made by Toshiba in the 70's (jomama)

Singer-Freidman: model 1082 It was a tabletop estat. Also GAF had 2 models a small desktop and a huge 40 cpm floor model that used strobe lamp exposure. all of these used roll fed paper like most but not all of the machines in that era. (jomama)

Saxon: I sold them but don't remember much about them...how they started or where they went. The company I worked for had the liquid toner Savins and the Saxon was a dry toner alternative. (Old Glory)

Saxon PPC1 and PPC2!!! Plain paper & liquid toner (Anders And)

Copystat: Before Saxon bought them, the liquid estats were made and sold under the Copystat name. I worked for them in 1970/71. My first introduction to copiers. We thought the process was a miracle. (jomama)

Selex: Was a secondary line to Canon in the 80's (art post) Canon introduced the Selex line as a bid machine category. They were basically just stripped down Canon units. (rj nelson)

Mita: Was one of the rockin star manufacturers during the early to late eighties. (art post)

Mita's big claim to fame was that they only made copiers so they were the experts. No company money going into R&D for camera's watches or whatever. (rj nelson)

Towa: If memory serves me correctly they were headquartered in Morrisville, Pa. They relabeled Sanyo copy machines. Back in the 80's

Sanyo: From what I recall had a pretty decent line up of systems, they also OEM'd for Towa. Back in the 80's.

Minolta: Minolta 101 estat system (I trained as a tech on that system and remember selling the EP310, EP320, EP510 (just some of the early plain paper models). (art post)

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=-