Tidbits on the Copier/Printer/Software Industries for the Week of 11/30/09

The falling value of the U.S. Dollar is having huge impact in Japanese manufacturers. Details:
- Japanese yen was trading at its strongest against the dollar in 14 years, climbing to as high as 84.83(in other words, the dollar is worth only 85 yen, in contrast, it was worth 110 yen a few years ago)
- Canon’s CEO, Fujio Mitarai, said Japan is “standing on edge of a cliff”, and that Japan needs “urgent steps to counter this critical situation”
- Japan’s electronics companies lose a combined $369 million in annual profit for each 1 yen appreciation against the dollar according to Daiwa Research Institute Ltd.
- In contrast, the South Korean won has fallen 20% against the U.S. dollar, thus helping the record profits of Samsung.

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According to research firm, IDC, Samsung is the number one supplier of A4 MFPs during the last two quarters worldwide.

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Panasonic announced it has purchased India’s top electrical accessories company, Anchor Electricals, for 9.2 billion yen.

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Hewlett Packard gave out information on using dots per inch (DPI) versus bit depth with color printing:
- “DPI (dots per inch) is the traditional measurement and indicator of a print device’s out quality. With the advent of color printing however, other factors have a dramatic effect. In particular, increasing the number of colors per dot (bit depth) greatly improves image quality. Amazingly, some inkjet printers with only 600dpi print resolution are able to produce photographic results due to the range of color they can fit in to a single dot. The image enhancement technology that provides this capability……has forever changed the usefulness of DPI as the sole metric for determining print quality”
- “Ironically, the historical emphasis on DPI as the critical factor for assessing print quality has made these print quality improvements difficult to explain.”
- “The bottom line, use your eye, not DPI, when evaluating image quality”

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Hewlett Packard gave out more details of its last quarter’s financial performance:
- Net revenue down 8% to $30.8 billion
- down 3% in Americas
- down 17% in Europe
- Net revenue for full fiscal year down 3% to $114.6 billion
- Operating profit for full fiscal year was $10.1 billion
- Services revenue increased 8% to $8.9 billion
- Imaging and Printing Group (printers and MFPs) was down 15%
- Printer/MFP supplies revenue down 8%
- Commercial printer/MFP hardware sales down 32%
- Commercial printer/MFP unit shipments down 38%
- Profit of $1.2 billion
- CEO, Mark Hurd, stated the following on this division; “IPG is poised for recovery and is getting on the attack. Demand is improving for our printers. We are also encouraged by our managed print services funnel, which are at record levels. Now with a printer refresh coming, we feel pretty good about it.” (is he referring to the impending launch of the full Canon MFP product line?)
- CDO, Cathie Lesjak, stated; “if we have to trade off some operating dollars for growth we will”
- HP predicts that 2010 total revenue will be $119 billion

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Ricoh announced that its Aficio MP 9001, a 90ppm b/w MFP, won 4.5 stars from Buyers Labs Inc. BLI’s duplex productivity test results were high on the Ricoh due to its document feeder that scans both sides of original at same time.

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PC Magazine gave Canon its “2009 Readers’ Choice Award for Service and Reliability” for its digital cameras and desktop color inkjet printers/AIOs.

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A recent article in Graphic Arts magazine, had following statistics about toner:
- “companies persist in calling their toner “dry ink”, even though it’s really a minutely milled plastic powder”
- “with a couple of exceptions, toner is produced as blocks or sheets of plastic….these are pulverized”
- With pulverization process, toner particles are 4 to 15 microns in size, and are
random-sized, rough-edged, shards of plastic.
- Particle of talcum powder is 10 microns
- Human hair is 70 microns
- Hewlett Packard’s Indigo production color system uses toner particles that are pulverized in Israel to as little as 1 micron, and then mixed with liquid carrier, to create a viscous paste.
- Indigo inventor, Benny Landa, stated that particles are so small that if they were not contained in liquid carrier they would just float around the room.
- HP’s Indigo is only digital system that offers option of white toner

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MedAssets Supply Chain Systems announced that Konica Minolta is its preferred vendor for MFPs. The 3 year agreement is accessible by its 33,000 member locations in the U.S., including health systems, hospitals and non-acute care providers.

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QuoCirca Research, announced that Xerox is the Market Leader in its evaluation of managed print services in Europe.

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Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, and Antonio Perez, CEO of Kodak, were named by President Barack Obama to lead a $260 million program called Educate to Innovate, which will explore how social networks can be used to connect teachers with companies and improve student performance.

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Toshiba announced it will partner with Nantong Huada Microelectronics Group in China for computer system chip assembly, to move more manufacturing out of Japan.

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Some questions have been raised about copier bid award in New York. Oneida County awarded a 5 year copier contract to Arlott Office Products, even though its president is Oneida County Legislator, James D’Onofrio.

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PrintAudit, provider of managed print services software, announced that is won a contract from Pitney Bowes Management Services, Inc., which will use it to sell MPS to its customers in the U.S.

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The country of Indonesia announced that it wants to have copiers made in the country, instead of bringing them in from Japanese manufacturers. Details:
- Currently spends $210 million per year on copiers in the country
- Dataproducts of Malaysia and Teco Group of Taiwan both will spend up to $25 million each to build copier plants in the country
- Indonesia’s Industry Minister, Ramon Bangun, stated; “I’ve promised them that the government will gradually stop imports once they have realized their plans.”
- Ramon also said he would invite three Chinese manufacturers to invest in copier plants in the country.

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The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) announced:
- Business volume for month of October was down 32.8% year over year
- Receivable over 30 days increased 17%
- Charge-offs rose by 25%
- Credit approvals dropped 71.7%

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Three 16 year old boys were arrested in Easton, MD for making fake $20 bills using a color copier.

Lafayette County Arkansas Sheriff Victor Rose announced that Demarcus Tucker, Dexter Lowe & Edzell Wyrick were arrested for making fake $10 bills using a color copier. They were caught when they attempted to buy cigars with the counterfeit money.

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According to the Printing Industries of America:
- number of printshops in U.S. declined 18% compared to last year
- total industry employment is down 11.6%
- real output per employee is up 11.8%
- industry output down 4.5%

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Madison Advisors of New York announced findings of a study of companies who are trying to reduce their employees’ printing habits:
- Average amount of suppression is 8% to 16%
- Some as high as 70%
- Majority of companies have a 5 year plan of 26% to 50% reduction of paper
- Financial institutions planning for 50% to 75% reduction in paper

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