Tidbits from the Copier/Printer/Software Industries for the week of 09/21.09

BIG NEWS! Canon announced it will allow Hewlett Packard to sell most of its copier product line with Canon name. Details:
- Expansion of 25 year relationship between Canon and Hewlett Packard
- This is a one-way agreement, as Canon will NOT have access to HP devices
- HP will sell Canon branded b/w & color copiers from segment 2 up through segment 6- Initially, HP will market the Canon brand, but then will switch to offering the Canon copiers with the HP name on them as soon as it develops HP JetDirect based print controllers for them
- All current HP LaserJet and Color LaserJet devices are made by Canon
- HP will also resell Canon’s imageWARE and MEAP solutions
- Canon is looking gain back marketshare when it lost all IKON locations when IKON sold out to Ricoh, and when DANKA sold out to Konica Minolta in the U.S.
- This is fifth time that HP has attempted to enter the office copier space
- HP will use expanded product offering to grow its Managed Print Services program
- “creating an integrated platform and brokering a network of service partners that will enable resellers to sell contractual print offerings”
- “create new global business unit”, called Managed Enterprise Solutions, led by Bruce Dahlgren(former Lexmark executive) and headquartered in San Diego, CA
- HP, which recently acquired IT services provider Electronic Data Systems (EDS), will use 500 certified EDS account managers to sell managed print services with this new expanded device offering to companies in the U.S. (EDS currently accounts for 20% of HP’s MPS sales)
- Claims that the total MPS opportunity in the U.S. is $121 billion annually including $64 billion for hardware and $57 billion for software
- Estimates there are $90 billion worth of sales in 8 million SMB (small to medium sized businesses)
- Estimates there are $45 billion worth of sales in 18,000 Enterprise accounts
- Estimates there are $76 billion worth of sales in 4,300 named accounts and public sector, which will be handled exclusively by HP/EDS factory direct sales reps
- Is targeting an annual growth rate for MPS of 17%
- Partnered with several distributors to offer managed print services offerings to VARs, including Synnex, Supplies Network, NER Data and United Stationers.
- Claims that it can save companies an average of 15% with its MPS program, but up to 30% is possible
- Recently won a MPS bid from Swiss Post of Switzerland and reduced printer fleet form 17,000 devices to just 6,000 including MFPs. Other customers include:
- Constellation Energy
- United Stationers
- GES Exposition Services
- CH2M Hill
- Wildon Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
- Embarq Corp.
- Alliant Techsystems
- Texas Department of Agriculture
- Viacom
- 3M -
- While HP will do the billing for contracts that include Canon branded devices, HP will subcontract the service to either Canon branches or Canon dealers, based on customer request
- Customers will contact HP to place service calls, and HP will then dispatch to Canon branch or dealer
- HP claims to have 2000 customers under MPS contracts, including 450,000 devices and 18 billion pages per year.
- HP claims to win 60% of all MPS bids it participates in.

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Canon announced that it will call its managed print services program; “Canon Managed Document Services”:
- Target is to reach annual revenue of 100 billion yen by 2012
- Will invest 20 billion yen to launch program worldwide

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The National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP) has selected Konica Minolta as winner of the 2009 Association Hall of Fame Award. In order to win this award:
- Demonstrated consistent customer service
- Professionalism and integrity
- Quality of products that benefit the industry (print for pay)
- Innovative products that meet current and evolving needs of customers
- Problem solving sales, service and support staff members who consistently exceed the needs and expectations of customers
- Consistently sought to advance the competitiveness of quick and small commercial printer
- “Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA has stepped up in a big way this past year to offer high quality, very competitive digital printing solutions” “Equally important, they have backed their products with first rate service.”

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Google Corp. announced it has purchased an Expresso Book Machine for its headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Details:
- Can manufacture a paperback-bound books inline
- Top speed of 5 minutes per 300 page book
- Made by OnDemand Books, and uses a Xerox MFP as its print engine
- Google will sell the OnDemand books for $8 each

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MindFireInc., maker of variable data software, announced a new option called “MarketFire”, which will allow printshops to create, track, analyze and improve cross-media marketing campaigns. Pricing unannounced.
- microsite authoring tools
- flexible rules and trigger based events
- prospect centric data view
- analytical dashboard for reporting and tracking
- Mac and PC compatible

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Agfa of Germany announced the :Dotrix Modular color inkjet UV production system. Details:
- top speed of 6,300 feet per hour
- rollfed system
- can supposedly match 90% of all Pantone colors
- pricing not announced

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The Illinois Attorney General’s office has agreed to join the FBI into investigating how a school in Belleville, IL ended up being sued by 7 lease companies, when it thought it only had a lease for two copiers from one leasing company. Governor French Academy claims that it leased two copiers from Kevin Welch, and now the lease companies claim it has a total of 14 copiers on lease.

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XMPie won a “Encore Worth-a-look” award at the PRINT 09 show for its uStore 3.5 web to print software solution.

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Cartridge World, a business headquartered in Emeryville, CA, announced that its toner and ink cartridge refilling business is up 16.3% in the poor economy. It claims that its store across the U.S. have refilled 9 million cartridges last year.

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At a recent conference of IT executives, a presenter, Robert DeMarzo of Everything Channel, asked for those in the large audience if they planned to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7 by end of 2010, only one third raised their hands.

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UPS announced that it will launch a new web portal to allow end users to place print orders that are fulfilled by one of its 4,000 UPS Store locations. This will be the largest on-line printing network in the U.S. when up and running.

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Adobe reported its last quarter’s financials:
- Revenue of $697 million, down from $887 million last year
- Operating income of $167 million compared with $219 million last year
- Net income of $136 million compared with $191 million last year

Adobe announced it will acquire Omniture for $1.8 billion. The company makes Web analytics and measurement tools, so it can analyze how Website visitors interact with a site’s content.

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Kyocera announced that it has developed the world’s fastest inkjet printhead. Details:
- Named “KJ4 Series”
- Ejects up to 60,000 dots per second per nozzle
- 2,656 nozzles per head
- Up to 150 million dots ejected per printhead
- 60kHz drive frequency
- Up to 1200x1200dpi
- Printhead width of 4.25”
- unknown what inkjet printer maker will use this printhead

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Kodak announced that it sold $400 million worth of secured notes to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) in exchange for two seats on Kodak’s board of directors. Kodak also agreed to issue KKR warrants to purchase up to 53 million shares. The company also plans on offer $300 million of notes due in 2017 to institutional buyers.

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In a recent study done by Office Products Analyst (OPA), they found that the average cost per page for a desktop b/w laser printer is now $0.025. (based on 5% coverage per page)

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Nukote International, maker of refilled printer cartridges, is suing Office Depot for $217 million for breach of contract.

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5 men in Toronto, Canada were arrested by police after they were found with more than $1 million worth of inkjet and laser cartridges that were stolen from a local Lexmark warehouse. The product was on 32 skids in two separate locations.

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Two local school children, ages 10 and 11, were caught making fake $20 bills on a color copier in Pratt, West Virginia, near Charleston. The U.S. Secret Service let the boys off with a stern warning.

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Punch Graphix of Belgium announced that it has sold five of its Xeikon 8000 production color systems to Strategic Content Imaging, Inc., of Itasca, IL. Details of the 8000:
- Uses LED instead of laser
- Has 8 drums and images both sides of paper at same time (CMYK times two)
- 1200x1200dpi
- 4 bits per pixel
- 244ppm top speed full color
- 8.5 million pages per month max duty cycle
- Handles up to 16point stock
- Rollfed, up to 20.1” wide paper
- Uses PA toner technology
- SCI will use the systems for its digital book printing

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Barclays Capital predicts that Xerox will “make significant share repurchases next year” to boost its stock value.

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Street pricing seen on the Xerox color wax copier, the ColorQube 9201:
- $20,485.00 selling price
- $0.0055 for b/w prints (and those with a little bit of color)
- $0.0428 for color prints (prints that have some color)
- Excess usage of wax sticks results in customer getting charged for wax sticks consumed

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Oce’ announced it will relabel a Creo print servce, and call it the Oce’ PRISMAcolorworks” for the Oce’ ColorTream 10000 rollfed production color system. Pricing unannounced.

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