Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
12-30-2012
- Ricoh announced that it will not renew service contracts on any of the Canon fleet it acquired when the company bought IKON in October, 2008, as it can no longer guarantee that it can access Canon parts and supplies.
- Canon announced a voluntary recall of wireless file transmitters, as the black rubber exterior apparently can cause a skin irritation.
- Sharp’s deal to sell its LCD TV plant in Nanjing, China is falling apart, according to Asahi Shimbun newspaper, as potential buyer, Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan (aka Foxconn) is showing reluctance to make the acquisition.
- Sharp is also trying to sell plants in Mexico and Malaysia to raise cash.
- Samsung could be fined billions of dollars for its attempt to ban sales of Apple iPhones and iPads, according to Guardian newspaper of England:
- fines would be imposed by European commission’s competition arm
- could also receive fine from U.S. federal trade commission
- fine would be a penalty over Samsung’s attempts to ban Apple product sales through use of “standard essential” patents on 3G technology
- Samsung just announced a major expansion of its Silicon Valley, CA operations:
- gigantic 1.1 million square-foot headquarters for Samsung Semiconductor and a 385k square-foot facility for Samsung Information Systems America
- signing a 15-year lease for two 6-story buildings on an 8.5-acre site
- located in Cypress Business Park in Mountain View, the facility, the press release indicates, will be constructed to LEED Gold standards
- was able to make these moves thanks to significant state and local tax breaks
- among the tax incentives, Samsung will also receive a discounted rate from Pacific Gas and Electric.
- Apple announced it now has 53.3% of the U.S. marketshare for smartphones.
- Apple is planning on launching a new version of the iPad in March, 2013, according to Business Insider, that will be thinner and lighter than current versions.
- Marvell Technology Group Ltd. of Bermuda, provider of print controller technology, was ordered to pay $1.17 billion to Carnegie Mellon University for violating the college’s patents.
- Technology Properties Limited of Cupertino, CA has filed a lawsuit for alleged printer patent violations against:
- Brother
- Canon
- Dell
- Epson
- Hewlett Packard
- According to Actionable Intelligence, both Lexmark and Hewlett Packard are raising the prices on supplies in 2013 for their printers and MFPs.
- Hewlett Packard announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has officially opened an investigation into allegations made by HP that former Autonomy officials committed widespread accounting fraud. HP bought Autonomy in 2011 for $11 billion.
- Hewlett Packard is preparing to lay off 200 employees at Autonomy, according to The Daily Mail of England.
- Hewlett Packard is preparing to sue General Motors, for allegedly orchestrating a mass exodus of workers who quit HP to work at GM’s new technology center in Austin, TX. (HP was fired as GM’s managed IT services provider, which represented a loss of $600 million/year)
- Xerox scientists, Eric Gross and Ed Smith, were awarded a patent for developing a method a placing a patch of toner on a sheet to calibrate the printer’s registration and process control measurements.
- Xerox has requested that the federal government stop Korean companies from making low cost color wax sticks for its Phaser & ColorQube color printers and MFPs. The company alleges that these products infringe on its patents, and are of inferior quality.
- Princeton Digital Imaging Corp. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Kyocera Mita.
- The company claims that Kyocera is illegally using technology in its MFPs that infringe against a patent the company owns called; “modified statistical coding of digital signals”
- PDIC purchased the patent from GE, which purchased it from Nicola Fedele in 1989.
- Toshiba announced it is developing a new type of lens for the cameras in future cell phones and tablet PCs. Supposedly it will improve focus between objects that are near and far.
- Toshiba announced it wants to sell up to 16% of its nuclear plant technology division.
- Toshiba paid $4.16 billion in 2006 to buy nuclear division of Westinghouse
- Toshiba wishes to “reduce exposure to the nuclear industry following Japan’s power-plant shutdowns and global growth in alternative energies”
- Survey results from Iron Mountain Corp.:
- 9% of businesses claim they have enterprise-wide information management
- 35% of business claim they classify and manage their electronic document lifecycles
- 72% of businesses lack a strategic plan or tools to take control and manage their info
- 90% of businesses find it too difficult to classify and manage paper
- Top 10 technology trends according to Gartner:
- 3 of 5 top mobile handsets vendors will be Chinese
- Big data demand will reach 4.4 million jobs globally, but only 1/3 of the jobs will be filled
- 90% of enterprises will bypass broad-scale deployment of Microsoft Windows 8
- IT hiring will from China and India
- 40% of enterprise contact info will have leaked into Facebook
- Employee owned devices will be compromised by malware at more than double the rate of corporate owned devices
- Software spending will increase 25% for smart operational technology
- 40% of Global 1000 companies will use gamification with their employees (infuse otherwise mundane activities with the excitement and instant feedback of video games)
- Wearable smart electronics (shoes, tattoos, accessories) will be a $10 billion industry
- Market consolidation will displace up to 20% of the top IT services providers
- CompTIA’s recent survey of independent computer technology dealers, or VARs, found that 17% expect their managed IT services business to account for 75% or more of their total revenue over next 5 years.
- Microsoft announced it will open up six new retail stores in:
- Beachwood, Ohio
- Miami, FL
- St. Louis, MO
- Salt Lake City, UT
- San Francisco, CA
- San Antonio, TX
- Microsoft will have 37 stores (Apple has 390)
- Nubeprint Inc. announced results of survey of copier dealers who offer managed print services:
- number of incoming customer calls has increased dramatically since offering MPS, even though their technology provides for automatic service call and supply replenishment from devices under contract
- 40-80% of inbound calls are unnecessary
- less than 10% confirm they are meeting expectations
- HIPAA Breaches:
- Louisiana State University Hospital System notified 416 patients that their PHIs were exposed after a former billing department employee was caught selling the information.
- University of Michigan Health System notified 4,000 patients that their PHIs were exposed when an electronic device was stolen from car of an employee.
- According to investigation conducted by The Washington Post newspaper, the healthcare vertical is the most vulnerable to computer hackers:
- reason is that the healthcare vertical “lags other industries in fixing known security holes”
- “If our financial industry regarded security the way the healthcare sector does, I would stuff my cash in a mattress under my bed”
- Epic announced it won EHR contracts from:
- Mercy McCune-Brooks Hospital of Missouri
- $135 million from HealthEast Care System of Minnesota (4 hospitals)
- replacing AllScripts, McKesson & eClinicalWorks
- Prognosis announced it won EHR contract from Faith Community Hospital of Texas, including deployment of Apple iPads.
- NextGen announced an EHR contract from Central Eye Consultants in Mount Pleasant, MI.
- A hospital in Kenya, Pumwani Maternity Hospital, announced that it will imprison patients until they pay their hospital bills.
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor announced that the healthcare vertical added 20,000 jobs in November, 2012.
- total employment in healthcare of 14.5 million
- 82,200 were hired by hospitals in 2012
