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Monday, July 20, 2009

MFP Weekend Indsutry Notes 7/19/09


Special Thanx to Print4Pay Hotel members for thier contributions.

Konica Minolta’s Graphic Imaging Division announced it will market PuzzleFlow solutions for the newspaper industry. PuzzleFlow software products manage newspaper prepress workflows.

PostNet, which has 400 franchise mailing locations in the U.S., and 450 more worldwide, announced it will launch a new digital printing services program to its members. The new service will allow stores to receive print jobs electronically over the Internet.

Gartner released prediction of print technologies:
- by 2012, over 75% of all printed bills and statements in the U.S. will have advertisements for products and services, generating more than $2.8 billion in ad revenue for billers
- by 2012, over 30% of enterprise customers with document intensive business processes will use applications or custom workflows deployed on MFPs to lower paper process costs
and improve worker productivity
- by 2012, over 70% of businesses with more than 250 employees will adopt a
managed print services program
- by 2012, over 80% of enterprise businesses will be using fax servers

Hewlett Packard relaunched its managed print services program. Details:
- Run by Bruce Dalhgren (former executive of Lexmark)
- Includes savings guarantee called “Printing Payback Guarantee”
- After HP conducts its on-site assessment, and delivers proposal, it guarantees the savings it predicts.
- If the end user fails to realize the savings that HP promises after 12 months, HP provides the difference as a credit for the second year of the contract
- Guarantee is only offered if customer agrees to PAY for an official assessment upfront
- Customer must sign up for a minimum 3 year contract for guarantee to be valid
- Trade-in credit up to $1000 when upgrading to new HP LaserJet
- maximum of 400 units can be traded in
- HP hired celebrity Ben Stein to launch the program during a live webcast.
- HP claims it can save companies anywhere from 20%-30%
- HP states that one of its largest MPS customers is Intel Corp.
- covers 1800 printers
- 11% of printing is in color, and accounts for 50% of costs
- Another large MPS referral HP is claiming is STMicroelectronics

- Hewlett Packard announced it has hired Larry Irving as VP of Global Government Affairs.
- Previously, he was a White House technology advisor. He will work in D.C. and lobby the
federal government on HP’s behalf for its share of stimulus money projects

Toshiba announced a partnership with Close the Loop, Inc. This company is a global recycler of toner cartridges and was founded in 2000 in Australia by Steve Morriss. The company turns the recycled toner into a composite which is used to make fences, garden edging, outdoor furniture and other applications. The company’s plant in the U.S. is located in Hebron, Kentucky.

Nuance Communications Inc. is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over its $96 million buyout of a speech recognition division of Royal Philips Electronics in 2008.

Xerox announced that one of its scientists received his 100th patent. Marcel Breton received the patent for development of a new type of ink that could be used in future color inkjet printers

The Department of Applied Chemistry of Keio University in Japan, and the McMaster University of California have developed an inkjet printer that prints out a sheet of paper that can be used to test for toxins by dipping paper in the suspect liquid, and watching for color change.

Kodak announced it sold its first Prosper high speed color inkjet system to Data Forms, a print for pay in Hong Kong.

Lyra Research announced results of poll taken with business owners answering the question; “Have Environmental Considerations and Policies Had An Effect on U.S. Print Volumes?”:
- just under 40% said that it DID have an effect
- Over 40% said it did NOT have an effect
- Around 10% were not sure

Rochester Software Associates announced a new feature for its popular WebCRD product. This software provides an on-line kiosk for print job submission and management. The new feature is “Document Preview”, which not only shows a view of the pages, but now shows usage of tabs, colored paper, and finishing. Customers can turn pages with an animated flip just like a real book.

IBM won a contract from the Mobile (Alabama) County Public School System to provide technology to measure student performance, and adjust academic programs in real time to prepare students for 21st century skills. The contract payment will come out of a $26 million fund which was part of the recent federal stimulus package.

In a test to promote its new high speed color inkjet press, the JetStream 2200, Oce’ printed thousands of personalized versions of the The Washington Times newspaper. The newspapers featured content, ads and articles tailored to the interests of its targeted subscribers.

IRIS of Belgium, maker of an optical character recognition (OCR) engine, sold a major stake in the company to Canon for 22 million euros. Company started in 1987 by Pierre De Muelenaere and Jean Dider Legat.

The Monterey County police are reporting an upsurge in the usage of counterfeit currency apparently made on a color copier. Unknown who is making this fake money.

Graham, Texas police arrested Randall Hammond, 29 and Jamiece Smith, 36, after they were caught making fake currency using a color copier.

Riso announced it opened a new factory direct branch in Boston to increase its marketshare.

Brother, maker of low end color inkjet and laser printers and MFPs, was originally founded as Yasui Sewing Machine Co. by Kaneschi Yasui.

Epson, maker of color inkjet printers and MFPs, was originally founded in 1941 as Daiwa Kogyo Ltd.

Hitachi was originally named Namihei Odaira, and started in 1910.

Kodak settles a race bias class action lawsuit for $21.4 million that was filed by former employees.

DSS Co. Ltd. of Japan introduced new technology to increase productivity of workers. The company charges $10,000 for a two day study that includes the installation of tiny digital cameras on workers clothing and bracelets on their ankles. This tracks and measures their movements to find unproductive behavior. During testing, it found the most popular places of gathering were the coffee machine and copier.

Tomomi Sayuda announced the invention of the iBum, which is a photocopier built into the seat of a chair.

IDC announced latest data on computer sales during the last quarter:
- Dell Computer = 4,174,000, down 18.9%
- Hewlett Packard = 4,134,000 up 2.3%
- Acer = 2,009,000 up 51%
- Toshiba = 1,225,000 up 33.9%
- Apple = 1,213,000 down 12.4%

ABBYY Corp., maker of the FineReader optical character recognition engine, announced it is now offering a version that can be embedded into an MFP, according to Andrey Isaev of Russia, director of technology.

Lexmark launched a new series of color inkjet all-in-ones that can access the Internet from its touch screen color LCD control panel. Pricing starts at $199.00.

EFI, maker of Fiery controllers, announced it won a lawsuit against Leggett & Platt, which had sued EFI over alleged infringement on one of its patents in EFI’s VUTek wide format color inkjet printer.

-=Good Selling=-

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