August 29, 2016

Canon holds press conference

– Revealed new corporate vision named “One Canon”
– Strategy to bring together all B2B offerings
– Toyo Kuwamura named as EVP and GM of Business Imaging Solutions Group (BISG)
– Leveraging Canon Group Companies, including Canon USA, Canon Solutions America, Canon Information and Imaging Solutions, Canon Financial Services and Canon Business Process Services
– “Input products + Output Products x Network Software Solutions = New Business”
– One Canon is based on three pillars: o “see innovation”
o “see possibility”
o “see smart solutions”

– Announced it helped one of its dealers, Flo-Tech of Connecticut, win a contract from RSM (fka McGladrey Financial Consulting) that included 500 devices with uniFLOW solution
– Discussed upcoming launch of new production inkjet system, code-named “Voyager” o Will handle up to B2+ sheet sizes
o Will use up to 7 colors of ink
o Use aqueous ink technology (water based) § Ink is jetted onto an intermediate transfer belt
§ Heated transfer belt transfer ink onto paper

o Top speed of 3,000 sheets per hour (50ppm)
o Supposedly offer “ultra-high photo quality”
o Auto duplex
o Use an EFI Fiery print server
o Pricing not announced

– Announced that 7 law firms (not named) awarded Canon with contracts to implement information governance, office services (FM), document management and MFPs o Includes three AmLaw 100 ranked firms and two Am Law 200 firms
o Contracts total value of $42 million in net new business

– Announced that on 10/10-12/2016 it will conduct the thINK 2016 event in Boca Raton, FL for production print inkjet customers o Guest speaker will be former pro tennis player, Chris Evert

 

Sharp update on copier division

– No national dealer meeting scheduled yet (last one was in 12/2015)
– Will be bringing to market a “Smart Office” solution offering o Based on new parent Hon Hai’s strategy
o Aligned with Cloud Portal

– Will be launching new A4 models
– Will be launching new production print models
– Will conduct a road show for dealers
– Plans to add ten $1 million/year dealers in short term

 

Hon Hai to open new Sharp facility

– Hon Hai (aka Foxconn of Taiwan) announced it will open new facility in Taiwan
– Will make household appliances, TVs, refrigerators, air cleaners and dehumidifiers

 

HP’s pitch for PageWide MFPs versus toner

– Statements from Enrique Lores, President of Imaging/Printing/Solutions during recent press conference regarding its strategy to compete against laser/toner based A3 MFPs with future PageWide inkjet A3 MFPs the company will be launching
– Up to 75ppm top speed
– Substantial cost saving in total cost of ownership
– Up to 84% less energy consumption per page than laser based units
– Better compatibility with corporate enterprise networks and systems
– More reliable operation and less parts
– Is dedicating significant R&D investment to A3 engine design

 

Hewlett Packard info on “The Machine”

– More info provided on new computer being developed during interview with Jaap Suermont, VP of Software and Analytics for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in Computerworld magazine
– Will abandon the traditional computer hardware architecture of having a central processor with peripheral storage, solid-state memory, spinning hard disk drive and flash memory
– Instead will have a vast fabric of non-volatile semiconductor memory that simultaneously fulfills the functions of long term storage and traditional computer memory
– Will make the data it holds available to multiple processors
– The early prototype has 100 terabytes of memory
– Any processor will be able to address any byte and compute on it
– Be able to hold months of data and continually analyze it in real time
– Enable disparate data sets to be compared with suitable measures to ensure confidentiality of sensitive data
– Will run a version of Linux
– Will unveil prototype by end of 2016
– To strengthen its investment in big data technology, HPE announced it acquired Silicon Graphics Inc. for $275 million.

Panasonic launches new hi-speed scanner

– Now shipping the KV-S7097 scanner
– Is a desktop, flatbed unit
– Handles up to A3 sheet size
– Top scan speed of 95opm or 190ipm
– Holds up to 200 originals
– Base MSRP of $8995

 

Toshiba acquisition plans

– Announced it is planning on acquiring companies involved with power plant technology
– Will also expand its geothermal power production plants in the country of Indonesia

 

Toshiba continues to battle Katun

– Company filed patent infringement suit against Katun for making toner cartridges advertised as low cost alternatives for Toshiba MFPs in 11/2015
– Katun had filed counterclaims and a motion to send both sides to mediation
– On 8/11, Judge S. James Otero denied Katun’s motion for mediation

 

Hyland Software wins ECM contracts

– Award from University of Tennessee in Knoxville o Installed OnBase ECM
o Integrated with Banner by Ellucian and Transfer Evaluation System from CollegeSource systems

– Award from SpareBanki Forsikring, an insurance company headquartered in Olso, Norway

 

Lawsuit filed claiming toner scam

– Half-Price Books of Dallas, TX is suing formers owners of a Cartridge World franchise location in Dallas, TX for $1 million
– They claim that the owners repeatedly stole new toner cartridges that they had previously sold to Half Price Books and would then resell the same cartridges to the company
– Half Price Books had allowed the former franchise location owners to access their central distribution center to maintain the supply of toner.

 

Cartridge World sued over junk fax ads

– Whiteamire Clinic of Ontario, Ohio filed a class action suit
– Claims that Cartridge World sends out unsolicited fax ads, and does not offer a process of opt-out

 

Brother sued by disgruntled customer

– Kenneth Hobbs filed lawsuit against Brother in U.S. District Court for Central District of California
– He claims that certain Brother MFPs, such as DCP-7065N, are misrepresented as offering letter-size scanning, as the devices don’t actually capture the entire 8.5”x11” image

 

Nuance makes acquisition

– Announced it acquired TouchCommerce Inc., maker of omni-channel solutions that engage customers on any device through online chat, guides, personalized content and other automated tools
– Purchase price of $215 million

 

Ricoh wins production print contracts

– Award from Penguin Xerox, a commercial printer in Chennai, India o Installed a Pro C9110 production color toner system
o Reasons given for choosing C9110 were: § Max volume of 1 million per month
§ Top speed of 130ppm

– Award from Warton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s print center o Installed a Pro C7110 and wide format printer
o Included EFI DirectSmile and RSA WebCRD

 

Xerox CEO unloads stock

– Ursula Burns, outgoing CEO of company, filed paperwork to SEC to notify sale of 3,317 shares of Xerox.  Total value of $32,666.

 

Ricoh offering free printing to students?

– Auburn University of Georgia notified its student population that they can now print free on Ricoh managed printers and MFPs until 9/30/2016
– Reason for offer is apparently the “TigerPrint” system that Ricoh deployed was “subject of technical problems” and students were unable to print during first week of classes.

 

Former Lexmark employee facing prison

– Robert Eric Fockler signed plea deal in federal court and faces as much as 37 months in prison
– Was formerly an operations manager for Lexmark
– Apparently sent invoices to a company that he set up to receive invoices for work Fockler claimed to have done but never did
– Received $229,000 from Lexmark for fraudulent invoices
– Also made false expense claims of $56,000

 

Intel launches virtual reality device

– Announced the new Project Alloy
– A cordless headset that contains computational and graphics power to create virtual images and internal battery pack
– Blends images from real world into virtual environments
– Intel will make technology open source and let 3rd parties build the headsets

 

IDC reports on MFPs in Western Europe

– Continuation of downward trend in unit sales
– Best performing categories are; business inkjets, A3 color MFPs and 45+ppm color devices
– Q2 shipments were down 5.8% to 4.5 million devices (printers and MFPs)
– Total revenue down 0.8%
– Laser based device revenue down 1.4%
– Single function printers down 15.9%

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