Tidbits on the Copier/Printer/Software Industries for the Week of 10/26/09

Xerox announced financial results for its last quarter:
- Total revenue down 16% to $3.68 billion
- Profit fell 52%
- Post sales revenue down 11%
- Total equipment sales down 29% to $802 million
- Color equipment sales down 31%
- Production equipment sales down 27%
- Color printer sales down 35%
- B/W copier sales down 44%
- Color copier sales down 25%
- Gross margin up to 39.8%
- Cash balance of $1.2 billion
- Debt reduction of $938 million
- Total debt of $7.4 billion
- Service annuities down 5%

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According to Computer Resellers News magazine, Hewlett Packard took the #1 spot from Xerox in desktop color laser printer sales in the U.S. Details:
- HP was in sixth place last year
- Xerox was number 2, and Lexmark was number 3

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More details on the new alliance between Canon and Hewlett Packard:
- HP will begin advertising Canon copiers on its website on 11/1/09
- HP will resell imageRUNNER, imageRUNNER ADVANCE, and imageRUNNER ADVANCE PRO series
- Speed range from 23ppm to 105ppm devices
- According to Larry Trevarthen, HP’s Worldwide Director of Market Development, HP also has access to the imagePRESS production print products
- All the devices will initially carry the Canon name
- The products will be identical to what Canon dealers sell, including supplies
- Service will be provided by a Canon factory direct branch primarily. Only if there is no Canon branch in the area, will the service contract be offered to a Canon dealer.
- Canon currently has 60 factory branch locations, but will expand to 90 locations within 2 years
- HP will support Canon copiers with its Web JetAdmin utility
- HP will also modify its Universal Print Driver to support Canon copiers
- Starting in early 2010, HP will begin to develop its own print controllers for the Canon copiers

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Lexmark announced results of its last quarter’s financials:
- Will let go of 825 employees to cut costs
- Still employs 3000 in its Lexington, Kentucky facility
- Total revenue fell 15% to $958 million
- Laser unit shipments declined 22%
- Total hardware revenue down 24%
- Supplies revenue down 12%
- Net income down 73%
- cash on hand of $900 million
- Service revenue (including MPS) down 14% to $654 million
- gross profit margin up to 32.7%
- total long term debt of $648.7 million
- total liabilities of $2.45 billion

According to Lexmark:
- 44% of their revenue is from inkjet, and 56% from laser
- Average employee generates 10,000 pages per year
- Each filed or stored document is printed 19 times
- 20% of print pages are lost
- In 2000, there were 60 trillion pages printed
- In 2012, there will only be 55 trillion pages printed
- 98% of page printed come from an A4 device
- 80% of all print jobs are 3 pages or less

Lexmark still fighting a company that makes generic cartridges for Lexmark printers. Static Control Components Inc. is appealing a ruling in the Sixth Circuit U.S. District Court, which allowed Lexmark to shut down Static Control.

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Canon announced it has purchased Document House, a $6.7 million Xerox/HP dealer in Scandinavia. It will now offer Canon and HP products only.

Canon announced a change for the generic print controllers it sells for its printers and MFPs. Instead of offering standard a PostScript print driver from Zoran, it will now charge end users $1400 for a PostScript driver from Adobe. (or a customer can buy an EFI Fiery if offered)

Canon stated that since Ricoh bought IKON, it has signed up only 23 new dealers in the U.S.

When Canon launched the new imageRUNNER ADVANCE series, Canon highlighted its copier history:
- 1970 – first copier, the NP-1100
- 1984 – first digital copier, the NP-9030, a 30ppm b/w device, but did not connect
- 1987 – first digital color copier, the CLC-1, did not initially connect
- 1989 – launched the CLC-500, became the best selling color copier of its day
- 1992 – launched the GP55, offering digital b/w unit with fax/copy/print/scan

Canon announced it will spend $220 million to launch its own managed print services effort, with goal of gaining $1.1 billion in annual revenue by 2012.

Canon announced another partner for its MEAP embedded solutions, this time GBCblue which it offering the COPYblue solution:
- converts Canon imageRUNNER MFP into a self-service kiosk
- MFP acts as an interface to access a back-end transaction server managed by GBCblue
- Developed for public environments such as convention centers, libraries, hotels and airports
- User is prompted through the touch screen LCD on copier
- Accepts all major credit cards

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A company is suing leading research firm, Gartner, over the accuracy of its Magic Quadrant reports. ZL Technologies, maker of email search/archive software, is claiming that it was unfairly ranked low in comparison to its competitor, Symantec. The case will be heard in the 9th US District Court in San Jose, CA.

Gartner announced that it forecasts an increase in tech spending globally by 3.3% to $3.3 trillion in 2010. However, it claims that tech spending will not return to pre 2008 levels until 2012. This year experienced a 16.5% drop it IT hardware spending according to the research firm.


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Photizo Group, which offered consulting and training to dealers for managed print services programs, announced it has opened up its fifth office, this time in London, England. It also has offices in Boston, New York, Austin and Kentucky.

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Equitrac announced it is shipping version 4.0 of Equitrac Office, featuring:
- print management system for corporate enterprises
- improves security of confidential documents
- network based authorization, authentication and accounting
- enhanced reporting of media usage
- end user popup notifications including hyperlinks
- web-based Release Station allowing print jobs to be released using web browser
- Follow-You Printing now allows Xerox and Sharp copiers to have embedded application to over-ride printing rules and print color instead of b/w
- Supports Apple Remote Desktop

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Ricoh’s complaint seeking to bar Okidata from selling any more printers and MFPs in the U.S. won review by U.S. trade officials. The U.S. International Trade Commission said it would investigate the charge that Okidata is violating Ricoh patents.

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Konica Minolta announced it has opened up a new factory direct branch in Sydney, Australia. Details:
- located in Macquarie Park
- tall, multi-story glass building
- includes offices, showroom and warehouse in one facility
- surrounded by 200 native trees
- on first floor in front of building is large showroom, which has carpeting with a CMYK pattern stitched in to accent the new mid-range color and production color systems
- building also includes training facilities for technicians and end users
- an on-site café is also inside for use by guests and employees
- person in charge of facility is David Cooke, Executive General Manager of the branch

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PrintAudit, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, announced that its managed print services software is now compatible with Macintosh computers.

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IBM executive charged with insider trading. Robert Moffat, a 31 year IBM veteran and confidant to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, allegedly conspired to commit securities fraud. He was arrested by the FBI, which believes he netted $20 million in illegal profits.

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Current and former Kodak employees have asked a federal judge for final approval of a $4 million settlement that would resolve a long running class action lawsuit accusing Kodak of failing to properly compensate its employees

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Sharp gave out more details on its recent dealer meeting in Washington DC:
- Total US revenue was down 3%
- Has self-financed leases on a few major account deals, but has no plans to open up
its own leasing company
- Has a total of 440 dealers in the U.S.
- Is adding 20-40 new dealers per year, but also losing about half that many per year
- Has 10 factory direct branch operations from 13 acquisitions
- Has temporarily halted acquisitions, until economy improves, but still hopes to have 25 locations total in next few years
- Goal is for branches to account for 45% of sales in U.S.
- 4 of its 10 largest dealers are Global dealers (owned by Xerox)
- While it launched the Frontier series of A4 MFPs last year, it only has sold a total of 7000 units
- Healthcare vertical market is where most A4s are sold, accounting for 14% of units sold
- Only 310 of its 440 dealers are selling the Frontier A4 models
- In 2005, the total number of 31ppm+ A3 units was 479,431, and in 2008 was 563,309
- In 2005, the total number of 31ppm+ A4 units was 21,779, and in 2008 was 116,536
- Now has 135 technology partners for its OSA embedded solutions offering
- Now offering Front Panel, or ability for end user to customize the copier LCD display
- My Sharp Digital Signage, allows end users to run an announcement on the LCD display
- Future models will come standard with OSA, rather than current option for $349
- Will replace the existing AR-M207 20ppm b/w copier with the MX-200D, also 20ppm
- Will replace the AR-M257 and AR-M317 models in 2010 with ones with new design to match rest of product line
- Will replace the MX-M620 and MX-M700 models with models that also incorporate new look, and will also have pull out keyboards, and 150 sheet document feeder that scans both sides of original at same time

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Lasercare, a dealer in Los Angeles, CA that services HP, Xerox, Lexmark and other brands, claims it has fixed its 100,000th printer, since it was founded 22 years ago

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Hewlett Packard launched three new laser MFPs available exclusively for its PartnerONE dealers:
- LaserJet M9059 is a 50ppm, b/w A3 unit, based on existing M9050.
- LaserJet M4349x is a 45ppm, b/w A4 unit, based on existing M4345
- Color LaserJet CM6049f is a 40ppm, color A3 unit, based on existing CM6040f
- All are actually made by Canon
- The only difference of the new models, versus the units that they are based on, is that they have toner cartridges that are keyed, so end users have to buy the toners from the HP PartnerONE dealer, and not on-line, or in a superstore

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