January 29, 2016

Sharp subject of bidding war?

– According to Reuters News Service, there are two competing bids to bailout the financially troubled company

– Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, which is funded by Japanese government, has supposedly bid 300 billion yen, to keep company headquartered in Japan

– Hon Hai Precision (aka Foxconn of Taiwan) has supposedly big 625 billion yen, but this would mean company would be headquartered in Taiwan.

– Sharp faces a March, 2016 due date for repaying a total of 510 billion yen in borrowings.

o Sharp owes two banks, Mitsubishi and Mizuho, a total of between 500 billion yen and 600 billion yen

 

Sharp branch wins ECM solution award

– MaxxVault, maker of ECM (enterprise content management) solutions, announced Sharp Business Systems of North Carolina has won the MaxxVault Dealer of the Year Award 2015.

o “Sharp Business Systems of North Carolina has been one of our top partners over the last 5 years. We are very fortunate to have such a great partner as Sharp Business Systems and look forward to continuing our success into 2016. Angelo Amabile, Branch Manager of Sharp’s Charlotte Office, has been a key part of our strong partnership because he has always believed in our solutions,” said Bruce Malyon, MaxxVault CEO. “Sharp is dedicated to providing their customers with proven, flexible and robust solutions. These awards are a testament to their hard work and dedication in 2015.”

o “We are delighted to once again be awarded Dealer of the Year for 2015,” commented Brian Alspector, President of Sharp Business Systems of North Carolina. “More and more of our customers are needing solutions that help them manage and process their information more efficiently. Sharp is committed to delivering only top notch software solutions to our clients and we are very happy with the products and support we have gotten from the MaxxVault team.”

 

Muratec enters production label market

– Japanese company is best known for its A4 MFPs and fax machines

– Launched the PLS-2112 series of digital color LED label presses

– Uses a color LED print engine made by Okidata

– Uses continuous-feed (rolls) of label material, up to 8.5” wide

– Base MSRP of $24,995

– PLS-5150 handles media up to 12.5” wide, with top speed of 30 feet per minute for $52,995 MSRP

– The 2112F, for $39,995 MSRP, is an offline diecutter to compliment the PLS-2112

– The 5150F, for $74,995, is an offline diecutter to compliment the PLS-5150

 

Toshiba gets fined

– The European Union Court upheld fines of some $148 million imposed on Mitsubishi and Toshiba

– Both companies allegedly participated in a cartel for equipment used in electricity substations

 

Toshiba to sell divisions?

– According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper of Japan, a government-backed fund has proposed to purchase of its white goods division

o The Innovation Network Corporate of Japan (run by the Japanese government) apparently is considering making a 100% investment in the division that makes electrical appliances, such as kitchen appliances

– According to Reuters News Service, Toshiba plans to sell part of its chip business as it aims to recover from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal.

o The electronics conglomerate has started accepting bids, with early interest shown by the Development Bank of Japan Inc.

o The state-owned bank has already invested in Seiko Holdings Corp’s semiconductor operations.

o On the block are businesses that handle system LSI and discrete chips, which are widely used in cars, home appliances and industrial machinery.

o The loss-making operations posted sales of 330 billion yen ($2.78 billion) in the year ended March 2015.

 

Dealer hires executive from Canon

– Document Data Group, a dealer in England, announced it has hired Ben Whitehead as new Director of IT Delivery & Strategy

– Former worked for Canon in wholesale division

– Now reports to David Forsyth, Managing Director

– Document Data Group is a Canon and Kyocera dealerships

 

ABBYY of Russia wins solution contract

– Award from Banque Populaire d I’Ouset, a large bank in the country of France

– Document capture solution with OCR for inheritance and credit departments

– Digitizes, intelligently classifies and routes content

 

DocuWare wins ECM contract

– Award from Mercury Air Group of Los Angeles, CA

– Company provides fuel services for plans and airports

– Solution was for accounts payable department

– Included OCR solution from ABBYY

– Eliminated 12 cases of paper per month, and repurposed 2,500 of storage space

 

Lexmark wants new print cartridge law

– Udo Schlauch of Lexmark suggested “the timing is perfect to call on the printer cartridge industry to support measures to curb waste by encouraging reuse and recycling”

– Is recommending that governments make illegal the disposal of cartridges to landfill sites or incineration without efforts made beforehand to recycle

– Lexmark estimates that 300 million cartridges end up being thrown away every year in the U.S.

 

Casio launches desktop color A3 engine

– Mostly known for making time pieces, the Japanese company also supplies color laser engines to Lexmark

– The new Casio SPEEDIA GE6000 features:

– Color LED technology (instead of laser)

– Top speed of 38ppm

– 5.2 second first page out time

– 1200x1200dpi

– 1.5 million page expected engine life

– 640mm Wide x 577mm Deep x 460mm Height to sit on desktop

– Comes standard with single 550 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass

– Can handle banner sheets up to 120mm long

– Handles up to 256 gsm in bypass

– Can add up to 4 more paper drawer to make floor standing

– Small backlit LCD control panel

– Suggested MSRP of $2995

– Built-in print controller

o Made by Global Graphics (Harlequin) of England

o 3GHz processor

o 3GB RAM

o PCL and PS print drivers standard

 

Research shows large format printer growth

– Published by RNR Market Research

– Global large format printer market to grow CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 2.35% from 2016 to 2020

– Roll widths from 18” to 100”

– Most units will be ink jet based

 

InfoTrends research on display graphics

– Total value of display graphics in U.S. was $80 billion

o Total of 8 billion square meters of output produced

o 41% of total is done on digital wide format devices

o Leading media for sign and display market is latex ink technology

  • HP Inc. has largest market share
  • More than 30,000 HP Latex wide format printers have been installed

– Label & Packaging is a separate market at $43 billion

o Produces 40 billion square feet of output

o Only 1% is produced on digital devices

 

Epson publishes survey results

– 83% believe that paperless office is unrealistic

– 64% would rather read reports and brochures on paper

– 53% say paper documents are easier to share and handout

– 44$ say paper documents are easier to read

– 41% say paper documents are easier to edit/annotate

– 62% said errors are more common when editing an electronic document versus one on paper

 

Epson to build new inkjet printhead factory

– Will spend 20 billion yen

– To be located in Shiojiri, Japan

– Will produce Epson PrecisionCore printheads (for printers and MFPs that use ink bags instead of cartridges)

– 49,000 square meters of floor space

 

Hewlett Packard Enterprise survey results

– 85% of organizations are falling below recommended data security levels

– “Organizations are investing heavily in cyber security, but the lack of skilled resources and the deployment of advanced solutions without a sold SOC (security operation center) foundation in place remain top concerns”

 

Xerox to be Silver Sponsor of XPLOR show

– Will be Silver Sponsor for 2016

– Xplor was started 35 years when Xerox launched the original 9700 high speed b/w laser printer

– Is now an electronic document systems association

 

EFI adds option for its Fiery print servers

– Called the “Cut Server Option”

– For the Fiery proServer and Fiery XL print servers

– Drives one or more of the 1300+ supported cutting devices, whether sheet-fed or roll fed

– Pricing not announced

 

How many paper U.S. dollars in circulation

– The Federal Reserve System reported on currency currently in circulation

– $1 bills = 2,278,400,000

– $2 = 32,000,000

– $5 = 563,200,000

– $10 = 486,400,000

– $20 = 1,785,600,000

– $50 = 220,800,000

– $100 = 640,000,000

– Total = $1.34 trillion

 

Xerox wins production print contract

– Award from Pazazz Printing, a commercial printer in Montreal, Canada

– Installed a Xerox iGen 5 production color system

– Included optional 5 toner station, allowing shop to add orange, green or blue toner to traditional CMYK output

– Also included option to print on stock up to 24 points

– Will be used to produce short run packaging applications

 

Apple won ban of some Samsung products

– Won a U.S. sales ban against certain Samsung software features found in infringement of 3 Apple patents

– Ruling made by California district court judge Lucy Koh

– Impacts sales of several “Galaxy” branded mobile devices

 

Brother partners with Amazon.com

– Printer and MFP maker announced it has joined Amazon’s Dash Replenishment program

– Allows supported Brother devices to automatically order supplies from Amazon.com when low supply warning is activated

 

Brother launches new MFPs and printers

– Now shipping the new L5000 and L6000 series

– b/w A4 laser engine based

– support Google Cloud Print 2.0, Apple AirPrint and Mopria printing wirelessly from mobile devices

– color touchscreen LCD display

– can customize with up to 48 shortcuts

– optional connection to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, Evernote, OneNote and MS Sharepoint

– top speed of 48ppm

– Document feeder scans up to 50opm

– Scans both sides of original at same time

– Maximum paper capacity of 1,610 sheets

– 12,000 page yield toner cartridge based on 5% coverage per page

 

HP wins production print contract

– Award from Quantum Group a commercial printer in Morton Grove, Illinois

– Installed 2ea Indigo 10000 production color systems and 3ea Indigo 7800 production color systems

 

Feds continue crackdown of fake cartridges

– The U.S. International Trade Commission conducted seizure and forfeiture orders against several companies in California for importing and marketing illegal print cartridges from overseas that are cheap knockoffs of factory originals

– Smart and Easy Corp. of Chino, CA

– BCMY Corp. of City of Industry, CA

– Electric Zone of Van Nuys, CA

– Smart A Inc. of Rosemead, CA

 

HP cuts two more distributors for cartridges

– In order to cut down on number of resellers offering HP print cartridges, HP announced it is cancelling two large distributors

– D&H of Harrisburg, PA and Digitek of Dulles, VA no longer will offer HP cartridges to resellers in the U.S.

– HP at one time estimated to have 20,000 independent resellers marketing its cartridges, but now put the number at 9,000

 

Hewlett Packard cuts more employees

– Expected to reduce its workforce by 25,000 to 30,000 people mainly connected with Enterprise side of business

– Planned savings of $2.7 billion

– Total employed currently is 302,000

 

Xeikon wins production print contract

– Award from Eticom, a commercial printer in Mexico City, Mexico

– Installed a Xeikon 3300, to produce self-adhesive labels for food, beverage and pharmaceutical verticals

 

Dealer starts 3D printer rental program

– Danwood, a large dealer in England, announced a new 3D printer rental program aimed at the education vertical

– Schools can rent a 3D CubePro for 145 british pounds ($207) per month

– Includes delivery, installation and warranty

– Supplies purchased separately

 

Another inkjet firm to join 3D printer market

– Xaar Inc. of Cambridge, England announced it will develop 3D printer technology

– Has hired Professor Neil Hopkinson to lead 3D division

– Xaar currently develops inkjet printheads, like those used in the Xerox color wide format inkjet printers

– Professor Hopkinson is an expert on HSS printing, which uses inkjet printheads and infrared heaters to print, layer-by-layer, from polymer powder materials at much higher speeds than other 3D print methods allow

 

Microsoft to donate cloud services

– Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, announced the company will donate $1 billion in cloud services to nonprofits and researchers

– Wants to provide cloud access to communities that cannot afford them

 

Formpipe wins ECM contract

– Award from the City of Stockholm, Sweden

– Total contract value of $50 million

– 5 year contract

– Option to extend contract for 15 years

 

Wakefield Research on printer usage

– Published survey on how businesses use printers and MFPs

– 73% of business owners and decision makers at companies with 500 employees or less use their output devices at least 4 times per day

– Internal corporate departments, such as HR, AP and legal rely heavily on hardcopy documents for processes like employee onboarding, invoicing and notetaking

– Average company spends $34,843 on printing per year

– An average company handling 5,000 printed pages per month will spend more than $27,000 on printed document management

– 49% prefer to read documents on a printed piece of paper

 

Hyland Software partners with university

– Ohio State University has created a pathway for students that funnels them to Ohio-based Hyland Software for internships and welcomes them back with jobs in the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

– According to eCampus News, Hyland identifies the best students through its own internship screening process, providing a pool of capable, trained student technicians who return to campus ready to work.

– OSU has tried to replicate the arrangement with other vendors but so far has seen success only with Hyland.

 

Gartner Research on IT spending

– Worldwide IT spending in 2015 fell 6%

o Largest one year decrease it has ever seen

– Global forecast up 0.6% to $3.54 trillion

– In U.S., IT spending increased 3.1% to $1.14 trillion

o Forecast is that U.S. will see 1.2% increase in 2016

– Software sales predicted to grow 5.3% to $326 billion globally

 

Two dealers in Canada merge

– SmartPrint Inc. announced it has acquired LaserCorp, an HP dealer, which has locations in Toronto and Montreal

– SmartPrint, headquartered in Toronto, is a dealer for Canon, Lexmark, HP and Xerox

 

Speakers announced for trade show

– The 2016 ITEX National Conference and Expo for copier dealers will be held on 3/7-9/2016 at Broward County Convention Center in Florida

– Guest speakers are:

o Laura Blackmer of Sharp; “Millennials and Diversity”

o Cathy Lewis of 3D Systems; “Manufacturing the Future”

o Jeff Hayes of InfoTrends; “US Office Technology Industry Outlook”

o David Laing of HP; “Innovation for an Evolving MPS Landscape”

o David Ramos of InfoTrends; “State of the Independent Office Equipment Dealer Channel”

 

EFI launches new website

– Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (Nasdaq:EFII) announced the launch of the Imaging of Things exchange (www.ImagingofThings.com) – an online community for EFI customers looking to connect with print professionals and print buyers looking for unique and innovative applications.

– The online community, which is supported and promoted by EFI, is free for customers to join and use. They can post photos and videos of their most creative work produced on EFI industrial inkjet printers and/or EFI Fiery® digital print technologies, showcasing their creativity and innovation in a forum that helps them generate new business leads.

– “We are constantly inspired by innovative applications our customers create with EFI technology putting great images on almost any type of material,” said Guy Gecht, EFI’s CEO. “EFI created the Imaging of Things exchange to help our customers advertise these capabilities with a larger global community.”

– EFI customers, along with ad agencies, marketers, brand owners, designers and others in the creative community, can register to participate in the Imaging of Things exchange by visiting www.ImagingofThings.com.

 

Research on 3D printing in healthcare

– From ResearchandMarkets

– 3D printing market revenue in healthcare applications is expected to cross $3.89 billion by 2022

– Estimated CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 21.9% from 2016 to 2022

– 3D printer materials will have CAGR of 28.7% and grow to $1.1 billion.

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