SHARP ENTERS HIGH-PROD PRINTING BIZ

[Anonymous]

Sharp Enters High-Production Printing Biz
On
the heels of Ricoh’s announcement that it was acquiring IBM’s Printer
Systems Division to gain entry into the high-production printing
business, Sharp Document Solutions Company of America (DSCA) says it,
too, is making the move into high-volume printing.At its dealer
conference in Las Vegas on Monday, Sharp DSCA, a subsidiary of Sharp
Electronics, took the wraps off its first production systems for the
high-volume market: the MX-M850, MX-M950 and MXm11000. The new devices
print and copy at high speeds in the neighborhood of 85 pages per
minute (ppm) to 110 ppm.The new machines also support Sharp’s Open
System Architecture development platform. Launched last May, OSA is a
client/server-based architecture that allows network applications to
communicate with the MFP and remotely control MFP functions and
operation panel screens. This enables users to connect to business
applications through the MFP without requiring a PC.For example, Sharp
attendees at the Las Vegas conference registered on-site through
interactive menus on multifunction devices, which then printed out
customized materials.About 80 developers have enrolled to support OSA
since its launch, Sharp says.Sharp sells mainly through its 400 copier
dealers, but it also sells through smaller dealers and IT VARs via its
channel reseller program, for which about it has about 100 partners. 

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March 7, 2007 at 12:06 PM