Photo credit: Kathy Wirth
Blame it on the rapidly strengthening Japanese yen versus the U.S. dollar and euro, slower economic growth in China, Brexit, and/or a slowing global economy, but an alarming number of printer/MFP makers – from Sharp, Lexmark, Oki, and Epson this week, and Konica Minolta and Canon last week – reported overall gloomy results, including lower printer and MFP sales. Most notably was Sharp’s report, which indicated lower sales of copier/MFPs – copier/MFPs that had previously been a mainstay for the company.
The one vendor that surprised many this week was Xerox, whose which reported a big rise in net income for its latest quarter. While Xerox reported lower revenues for both its Document Technology and Services groups, what was key is that these revenue declines have begun to be less, while cost-cutting measures have begun to positively affect its bottom line, enhancing its profit margins.
Aside from legitimate currency-exchange fluctuations, the answer most likely lies in continued gradual declines in office printing and a difficult global economy. Keep in mind of course that this is just one quarter. But overall, while it’s true that vertical markets such as healthcare and legal will likely always be printing for some time, with the rise of free cloud-based document storage and easy digital document-distribution workflows, the decline in office printing is likely to continue to occur.
While supersizing generally isn’t good for either your waist or your wallet, Epson continues to supersize ink for its color inkjet All-in-Ones. Of note this week was its introduction of the WorkForce ET-16500 All-in-One ($1,199 MSRP) that prints on up to 13″x19″ and scans and copies on up to 11″x17″, and is said to include enough ink for 10,500 black pages and 11,000 color pages. Once the included ink is depleted, users refill the tanks with a black ink bottle retailing for $19.49 and yielding 4,000 pages, and three CYM ink bottles priced at $12.99 each and yielding 6,500 pages each. That comes out to an ISO cost per page of 0.05¢ cents for black pages, and 1.01¢ for color pages. This is going to be mightily appealing for some folks in small and mid-size businesses.
Financial News
- Sharp Posts Loss for Quarter, Business Solutions Group’s Sales Down 3.8 Percent – Read more here.
- Xerox Reports Slight Revenue Decline for Second-Quarter Revenue, But Much Higher Net Income – Read more here.
- Loss for Lexmark’s Second Quarter, But Sharp Revenue Increase for Enterprise Services Group – Read more here.
- Epson Stumbles in Latest Fiscal Quarter, But Reports Increased Sales of High-Capacity Ink-Tank Printers – Read more here.
- Loss for Oki’s First Quarter, Cites Sharply Appreciated Yen – Read more here.
Office-Imaging News
- Two New ‘Supersize’ EcoTank Inkjet All-in-Ones from Epson, Including First Wide-Format ‘Supersize’ All-in-One – Read more here.
- New Fujitsu fi-7030 Document Scanner with Enhanced Image-Processing Software – Read more here.
- New Xerox DocuMate 6440 Scans up to 60 Two-Sided Color Pages per Minute – Read more here.
Other News
- Copier Careers: Average Service/Operation Manager Salary is $84,426 – Read more here.
- Konica Minolta’s All Covered Now Providing 24/7 IT Security-Monitoring Services – Read more here.
- Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to Review Proposed Lexmark Acquisition by APEX Technology and Investors – Read more here.
Legal Briefs
- HP-Memjet Page-Wide Inkjet-Printing Investigation Formally Dismissed – Read more here.
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July 2016
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