*NEWS*A MULTIFUNCTIONAL AND COLORED WORLD

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A Multifunctional and Colored World
Printing
analysts say that more and more printing vendors are getting the memo
that businesses want multifunctional color printers instead of just
those that are single function and monochrome.With the amount of
information increasing everyday, the printing industry has become
important for businesses that have an array of printing
needs.”Information is importantly internally and externally for most
businesses as the amount of information increases everyday,” Susan
Lyon, Research Director of the Framingham, Mass.-based IDC Hardcopy
Peripherals and Document solutions, told eWEEK.When talking about
printers in the business world, there are many different categories
that a printer can fall into such as inkjet, laser, color laser, single
function printer and multifunctional peripherals (MFP’s), which is a
single device that serves several functions including printing,
scanning, faxing and copying. Two important trends in the printing
industry today concern color printers and MFP’s, as both combine to
replace single function printers.According to IDC’s “Worldwide Hardcopy
Peripheral Tracker Quarterly”, single function printers between the
year’s 2005-2010 will decline about 3.7 percent per year due to being
replaced by MFP’s.

Two printer companies that are taking
advantage of the MFP trend are Hewlett-Packard and Xerox Corporation,
both of which launched MFP rollouts within the past year.IDC’s
“Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Tracker Quarterly” included Xerox in its
top five MFP providers, along with Canon Inc., Ricoh Co., Ltd and
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.”Today, the MFP is a
sophisticated device with all the power and capabilities of a server,
including hard drives, operating systems, and network and Internet
support,” David Bates, vice president of product marketing for the
Stamford, Conn.-based Xerox, told eWEEK.This past February, Xerox
released two color multifunction devices, the Xerox Phaser 8560 and
Phaser 6115MFP, which enables business users to print up to 55 pages
per minute (ppm) and also gives them copying, scanning and faxing
functionalities.”The complexity of everyday work is driving customers
to replace their local printers with MFPs because with the added
functionality, end users now have the ability to make a quick copy,
scan or fax without having to walk down the hall, increasing
productivity,” Bates said.HP, not included as a top five MFP provider
believes that they are right on the cusp of being a top MFP provider
because they see the value that it brings to business
professionals.”MFPs are a great value for businesses because they
combine multiple capabilities in a single device and can also be used
to improve workflow within a business,” Tom Codd, Director of Outbound
Marketing for LaserJet Business for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP,
told eWEEK.This past October, HP rolled out LaserJet MFPs designed to
help businesses improve their “business agility, effectiveness and
costs related to the imaging and printing ecosystem,” Codd said.The
MFPs that were launched by HP in October, the HP LaserJet M3035 MFP,
M4345 MFP and M5035 MFP, enable business users to print up to 35 pages
per minute while also offering advanced digital sending with paper
handling and finishing capabilities.”HP will continue to provide new,
MFP solutions and services that optimize printing infrastructure and
enable better management, as well as HP MFP solutions that help SMBs
and enterprises transform their printing and imaging business processes
and improve workflow so that customers can concentrate on profitably
running and growing their business,” Codd said.

Konica
Minolta’s, one of the top five MFP providers according to IDC, bizhub
leads their MFP offerings and provides business professionals with the
usual MFP capabilities but also adds security features such as hard
disk drive overwrite and job erase, which enables users to overwrite a
hard disk drive after each job while also featuring user authentication
option that allows a user to enable or disable a user’s access to the
device based on function whether it is copy, scan, print or
fax.”Implementing the Konica Minolta bizhub solution not only saves IT
support staff time, it streamlines document workflow and eliminates the
need for redundancies, as Konica Minolta’s MFP products and software
solutions deliver digital connectivity and improved workflow
capabilities,” Kevin Kern, vice president of product planning and
development for the Ramsey, NJ-based Konica Minolta Business Solutions
U.S.A. Inc., told eWEEK.For the future, Konica Minolta hopes to keep
adding to its MFP product line while also developing new MFP
technologies that will allow their company to stay in the market.For
example, Konica Minolta developed Printgroove, to be released in the
Spring of 2007, printing software that allows business users to manage
their print queues, monitor device status as well as the ability to
preview jobs before they are printed.”Looking forward, Konica Minolta
expects its MFPs to continue to grow in market share as these
technologies continue to be exposed to in the market,” Kern
said.According to the report done by IDC, another noted trend in the
printing industry is the increased use of color in both laser printers
and color laser MFPs. The report points out that the color laser MFP
industry alone will be a 5.7 billion dollar industry by 2010, growing
in unit at 17 percent in value and 10 percent per year.

“Prices are falling and customers are appreciating the value of having color,” Lyon said.
Peter
Grant, Managing VP of Printing Markets Research for the Stamford,
Conn.-based Gartner, Inc. agrees with Lyon that color is important in
the printing industry as he said that “Color is here to stay and
vendors need to provide the right value for it.”Leading the way in the
color print market is HP, who is also joined by Canon, Epson Corp.,
Lexmark International Inc. and Dell Inc.”Color is applied to everything
in the workplace from presentations to marketing collateral and more
color documents are being created from spreadsheets to e-mails to
flyers,” Codd said.IDC’s report also shows that color laser printers
will grow at 17 percent and that growth will come from everywhere as
even home users want color printing capabilities.This past October, HP
also launched new color print platforms, HP LaserJet CM1015 MFP, HP
ColorSphere Toner, HP LaserJet P3005 series and the HP Color LaserJet
CP4005, all aimed at giving businesses a better way to manage their
color printing needs.”Color is increasing in capability and value and
everything on the Web is in color as customers want to print articles
and information that is important to them,” Codd added on the value of
color to the printing industry.

For Konica Minolta, the user’s need for color quality has driven the company to produce more color printing products.
“During
the last few years, Konica Minolta has focused on offering high
productivity color products – from the desktop to the print shop – to
meet diverse needs of its customers,” Kern said.The company’s Simitri
HD Toner strengthens the bond of color pigment particles and also
reduces the effect of chemical change while also having the ability to
withstand exposure to UV light. This enables Konica Minolta to offer
users a wider range of colors.”By introducing breakthrough innovation
and bringing down the cost of color, Konica Minolta has offered users a
product line that meets a user’s color needs,” Kern said.In the near
future, Konica Minolta will be introducing seven new color MFPs and the
company feels this will help keep them in the color market.”Color – and
technologies associated with providing the best images available on the
market – have been important to Konica Minolta and will continue to
play a pivotal role in it being a leader in the color market,” Kern
said.Printer vendors are also trying to branch out by developing new
technologies and integrating them into their printer platforms, giving
business users increased capabilities.”Lots of changes are happening in
the industry, especially with regards to speeds and prices which offers
opportunities for some vendors and threats for others and drives the
development of new technologies,” Grant said.”There are many innovative
things going on in the printer industry as printers now have the
ability to print barcodes, consumer goods, calendars, t-shirts while
also developing new printer applications,” Lyon said.HP joined the
innovative section of the printer industry by developing a universal
print driver (UPD), which provides user with a single print driver for
all HP printing devices. HP’s UPD uses simple network management
protocol (SNMP) to talk to the printer and then creates a driver and
user interface that can adapt to the features installed on the device,
helping to provide the user with a common interface for all printers as
well as the ability to access features installed on the devices.”A
universal print driver allows a business user to consolidate and
simplify print driver management and what HP has done with their UPD is
extend their competitive advantage and has created a barrier for others
to get in,” Grant said.”HP sees a tremendous imaging and printing
growth opportunity in SMB (small and medium-sized businesses) and
enterprise markets as you’ll continue to see innovative products,
services and solutions for in-house market as well as enterprise
solutions and services focused on particular business problems,” Codd
said.Grant also pointed out that Xerox is trying to get into the UPD
market because “Xerox has the resources and desire to solve support
issues via a UPD.”Konica Minolta recently made available its
Printgroove software, which provides businesses, central reproduction
departments (CRD) and small- to mid-size print shops with software that
can manage, monitor and set-up the company’s various bizhub
multifunction printer (MFPs) platforms, as well as an all-in-one device
that has printing, scanning, copying and fax capabilities as well as
various management capabilities.”Printgroove’s modular design allows
for an exact configuration to target a specific need with the right
platform, including the ability to handle any traffic volume and
accommodate as many printing steps and stations as business processes
demand,” Kern said.All in all, the printing industry is one that
continues to develop and is one that businesses will continue to rely
on.”The proportion that gets printed each day may decline over time but
because there is just so much information, printing is constantly
increasing,” Lyon said.

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April 30, 2007 at 10:55 AM