ComColor Options and Partnerships Reveal RISO’s Production Market Strategy

A series of announcements over the past year from RISO and its partners underscore a sales and marketing strategy that RISO is using to focus its ComColor line of color inkjet printers on production environments. (Note: InfoTrends clients can refer to the analysis entitled “RISO Accelerates Color Cut-Sheet Inkjet to 150-ipm with Its New ComColor Line” dated June 17, 2009” for more background details on ComColor.) While ComColor has some opportunities in office multi-function peripheral (MFP) markets, what RISO has discovered is that with the right accessories and partnerships in place it is gaining acceptance for high-volume applications, particularly in print and mail environments.  Read more »

Kodak’s Prosper S10 Imprinting System Now Capable of Process Color

When Kodak first launched the S10 Imprinting System, the users were only printing monochrome or spot color with it. Process color printing was the next logical step. Today Kodak announced the first customer to run process color with an S10 Imprinting System. It’s a U.S.-based direct marketing company called Lehigh Direct. This type of “hybrid” on-press use of inkjet in conjunction with web-fed offset presses is a fascinating opportunity. So interesting, in fact, that InfoTrends recently wrote a white paper on this topic and used a Prosper S10 Imprinting System customer, Wilen Direct, as an example of this developing trend. The white paper (entitled “Opportunities for High-Speed Monochrome and Color Inkjet Mounted on Offset Web Presses”) is available for free through Kodak on the Prosper page of the Kodak web site. I recommend that you have a look at this document because it describes and defines key aspects of the use of inkjet and offset in hybrid combinations. I also believe that Kodak is in a very good competitive position to lead this developing market, which is another reason to pay attention to this announcement. When InfoTrends finished its white paper in March, Kodak had not yet specified a release date for on-press process color capability with the S10 Imprinting system. Here we are now in August and it’s arrived, which is very good news for Kodak and for those users who want to take advantage of the best that offset and inkjet have to offer together.

Transaction Printers Are the Leading Adopters of High-Speed Continuous-Feed Process Color Digital

Who is buying high-speed continuous-feed process color printers? Early evidence indicates that it’s transaction printers. About 200 print engines in this class were placed around the world in 2009 but it hasn’t been entirely clear which environments have been most likely to buy them. It was my assumption that the quality and running cost capabilities of these devices made them attractive to transaction, direct mail, and some publication environments but I wondered whether that was really the case. I decided to look at the public announcements of companies that have placed such products to see what this said about market preferences. Read more »

George Will and the Blues Brothers

I was in Los Angeles Monday at the Konica Minolta “Power of Performance” Conference & Product Expo. About 30 analysts have been invited to report on this event that this year is bringing together Konica Minolta dealer and direct sales channels in one giant lollapalooza held from May 2-5 at the JW Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live (next to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles). About a thousand people are here and we’ve just completed the first day which started with presentations from Konica Minolta executives, continued with a keynote from conservative commentator George Will, and has finished up with a rousing performance by the Blues Brothers (Dan Ackroyd and Jim Belushi) at nearby Club Nokia. I think from the A-list entertainment line-up you can see that Konica Minolta is going all out for this event, but the real risk, as Konica Minolta Business Solutions, USA Senior VP and CEO Rick Taylor put it, was getting all of the dealer and direct sales people in the same room for the first time. This strategy, however, has enabled Konica Minolta to bring a consistent message to the two groups that most need to hear it, despite the fact that by their very nature they are often in conflict.

Konica Minolta Power of Performance attendees take a break from the morning's festivities

Read more »

Kodak GUA Day 1: The Importance of User Groups

The annual Kodak GUA (Graphic Users Association) conference is taking place this week, April 11-14, in Vancouver, BC. I am lucky enough to be here in attendance as a media/journalist member and participant in one of the K-Zone sessions. I don’t often get the chance to come to user group meetings and interact with print service providers. Here are a few of my thoughts as the first day comes to a close.

The user group experience continues to be one of utmost importance to those in attendance. Talking with print service providers attending the event it is no surprise as to why they are here. Participants are given the opportunity to speak with like minded individuals at varying stages in technology implementations. They are able to gain valuable insight, discuss issues, and be reassured that the paths they are taking are those leading them in the right direction.

Read more »

No Heidelberg at Graph Expo 2010

WhatTheyThink reported last week that neither Heidelberg nor Komori would exhibit at Graph Expo this year. This news represents the culmination of a trend that has been brewing over the past ten years at the Graph Expo and Print shows. Since 2004, InfoTrends has compared the Graph Expo show floor maps to provide an indication of market changes. These rankings are compiled by measuring the published show floor map. Initially InfoTrends began conducting this exercise to show the impact of the digital vendors on a trade show that had been dominated by traditional printing press vendors. This point has long since been made. For all practical purposes, as one looks at the list of top vendors, Graph Expo has become dominated by digital exhibitors.

Read more »

What’s Keeping You Up at Night?

I recently met with a group of Kodak NexPress users and I asked them, “What keeps you up at night?” They started throwing out a range of ideas and didn’t stop until we came up with a list of about twenty things like keeping up with technology, driving growth, new competition, automation, legislation, solution selling, and government regulations.

I dutifully wrote everything down and then grouped them into about eight or nine topics areas. I gave everyone three votes to apply to their top three nightmares. After the smoke cleared the top issue by far was the future of print. In short, what is the viability of print in an age of Internet, social media, and mobile communications? Read more »

Canon to Acquire Océ

Today, Canon Inc. (trading symbol CAJ) announced a public cash offer for all the shares of Océ (trading symbol OCE).  Canon intends to make an offer of € 8.60 per Share (cum dividend) for 100% of the outstanding Shares of Océ, representing a premium of 70% over Océ’s closing share price of Friday 13 November 2009 and 137% to the average share price over the last 12 months, this makes the deal worth about 1.1 billion dollars.

In the wake of other major acquisitions in the last year, particularly Ricoh’s acquisition of IKON, there has been much speculation about what Canon will do. Now that Canon has agreed to acquire Océ, it is clear that one of its strategic options has been selected. Read more »

TKS to Unveil JetLeader Production Color Inkjet Newspaper System

At the JANPS newspaper production show in Tokyo later this month a web offset press manufacturer called TKS (Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho) will be unveiling a production color inkjet newspaper system called JetLeader. It is a roll-fed device that prints at speeds of 150 meters per minute (492 feet per minute) and has a maximum print width of 541 millimeters (21.3 inches) on a maximum roll width of 546 millimeters (21.5 inches). It uses piezo drop-on-demand inkjet heads and aqueous pigment inks. TKS says it can print on groundwood newsprint at weights of 60 gsm or higher. The configuration that will be shown at JANPS will be process color on one side of the web and monochrome on the other (4/1) and will include a sheeter and accumulator. TKS says that a 4/4 configuration will be available upon launch at the end of this month. Pricing has not been released. In addition to the standalone JetLeader newspaper system, TKS will also demonstrate a hybrid offset/inkjet offering at JANPS. Read more »

The Inkjet MICR News Keeps On Coming

What is it about magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) that has made it such a hot topic recently? There have been at least five MICR announcements involving high-speed color inkjet in recent memory:

• Océ started the trend with its announcement of MICR capability for JetStream in October of 2008. The JetStream implementation was the first in a high-speed color inkjet device to use a fifth color implementation of a MICR inkjet ink.
• In September of 2009 HP announced a technology alliance with R.R. Donnelley that includes joint development around inkjet MICR. This will assure that a MICR option will be available for HP’s T300 Inkjet Web Press.
• At Print 09 InfoPrint added MICR inkjet ink capability for the black station of the InfoPrint 5000 (InfoPrint also had other MICR activity at the show with cut-sheet toner products through its partner Rosetta Technologies).
• At Print 09 RISO (in partnership with Kirk-Rudy) announced an in-line MICR accessory for the HC5500. This new accessory was announced at the same time as a new envelope feeder.
• In October Kodak announced a MICR option for the Versamark VL series that will be available in the first half of 2010 (more on this below).

Read more »