Vista Angst

“I have Vista on a notebook with 2 gigabytes of memory and a decent-size processor, and with Vista on there, it just doesn't work. It takes over 10 minutes just to open a Word document.” That’s a quote from a computer analyst in a current USA Today story about the continuing backlash of both corporate and home users (“Vista struggles to bust out as business customers snub it,” 4/29/08).

Another IT administrator, with over 14,000 computers under his supervision says “I wouldn't put on Vista if it was free.…In the past, there's always been an important reason to upgrade, but XP (the previous version of Windows) is perfectly acceptable.” Analysts have ranged from calling the release of Vista “a disaster” or “the biggest blunder ever” and “equivalent to the New Coke fiasco.” Apple has made Vista the butt of some very effective advertising.

The story reports that users across the country are reveling against adopting Vista, due to its slowness, balkiness, training and help-desk burden, and minimal payoff. In fact sales at Microsoft of Windows operating systems are down by 24% in the last quarter. Even the release of a service pack bug fix has been a big disappointment.

With Vista getting hammered from all sides, many customers are just sitting on their hands, waiting for the next version of Windows. Microsoft has announced that Windows XP will no longer be available after June 30. But there is major blowback from some of Microsoft’s biggest clients, and it’s hard to imagine that deadline will be tolerated by the IT community, which is already organizing petition drives.

For hardware and software vendors in the printer and copier business, the problem is that they now have to support both versions of the operating system in full. That involves not only upgrading and testing software to work with a wide variety of programs and new drivers, but also training dealers and having help-desk support available for hard-to-diagnose problems, in addition to offering solutions for Microsoft’s (as yet little used) XPS image workflow. Needless to say, none of this puts money in the pockets of these companies, and introduces as whole new set of headaches, headaches that may continue for years until Microsoft’s next version of Windows is due for release (and perhaps a whole new set of problems will arrive then.

Turning it off

HP's UK branch has released a short online publication called “The HP Guide for Greener Printing” available here online.

Most of the advice is pretty obvious, with encouragement to print in duplex, send more documents electronically, and recycle paper.

On interesting point is made, however, about the effect of letting printers and copiers run when not in use. “All office equipment uses energy when switched on or in stand-by mode. In the UK alone, equipment left on standby is responsible for generating over 3 million tonnes of CO2 each year, according to the Energy Saving Trust.”

Of course, many copiers and some printers have sleep modes that are automatically triggered if left idle for a preset period (generally somewhere between five and 60 minutes) , or can be set to go off ready automatically during non-working hours. That’s part of the new EnergyStar criteria for newer machines, and many companies are complying. But many older desktop machines in particular do not offer any sleep feature. Having employees shut down desktop printers and MFPs at the end of the day may be a smart idea.

New HP color ledger MFPs

Hewlett Packard recently introduced a new color laser printer-based multifunctionals group handling ledger-size paper. The LaserJet CM6030 models print at 30ppm in both color and black-and-white, while the CM6040 models print at 40ppm in color black-and-white. Street prices for these models range from $6,999 to $8,999.

These MFPs have a maximum capacity of 2,100 sheets. They also come with a 40 page document feeder. Automatic duplex and Ethernet connectivity are standard.. On the output side, these machines offer500 sheets of standard output, but they also have several optional finishers, a multiposition stapler unit and a five-tray finisher with saddle-stitching and booklet-making.

Scanning to email is standard, and faxing is standard on some versions, optional on others. Consumables are under one cent per page in black, under eight cents in color.

These new MFPs from HP look and act a lot like copier MFPs. The prices are lower than comparable-speed color copiers, but some of the options (including paper feed capacity) are not at the same level. Nevertheless, the CM6030 and CM6040 models a good solution for someone who needs the functionality of a fast color laser MFP, but does not need all the added bells and whistles.

Xerox Green Survey

In time for Earth Day, a recent survey by Xerox asked US office workers about the "non-green” practices in their offices. According to Xerox, the biggest gripes about companies’ lack of environmental awareness were::

* mindless printing resulting in abandoned pages at the printer (40 percent)
* leaving lights on in unused offices (37 percent)
* lack of recycling bins (33 percent)
* excessive air conditioning or heating (29 percent)
* wasteful use of paper products, such as plates and cups (27 percent)
* co-workers who don't recycle (27 percent)
* co-workers who print single-sided instead of double-sided documents (24 percent).

The survey also noted that environmental awareness is often a function of age, where younger employees tend to be more green-oriented. It also noted that women tend to be more eco-conscious than men.

It’s interesting that many of these issues have to do with printing, an area where users themselves have some control over the waste.

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Ricoh refreshes top-of-the-line color copier-MFPs

Ricoh recently released two new color copiers that are among the speediest in the industry. The Aficio MP C6000 ($29,800) outputs at 55ppm in color and 60ppm in black, while the C7500 3($37,8000) operates at 70ppm in color and 75ppm in black In almost all respects the machines are identical.

These color copiers expand Ricoh’s presence at a level of the market that has few competitors. They replace a pair of slightly slower models, and add a few new enhancements.

The range of paper-handling accessories is also a strong point. You can have up to 7,400 sheets of input total. There is also a choice of three stapler-finishers, as well as an option Z-folder device and a cover inserter.

PostScript printing is standard, Strong scan-to capabilities are standard as well, and (unusual at this speed) a fax board is an option.

Color copiers are getting faster and ore productive with every passing year. Ricoh’s new models set a new standard that others will have to catch up to.

Konica Minolta buys Danka

Konica Minolta announced it would buy copier dealer chain Danka Office Imaging by one of its suppliers,. The US company is a division of UK-based Danka Business Systems PLC, which is planning to dissolve. The deal was for $240 million.

Danka (which is 31 years old) was once a major power in the copier industry, with a wide network in North America and Europe. In 2006, it sold off its European operations to Ricoh for $210 million. Last year, the remainder of the business lost almost $30 million.

For Konica Minolta, the deal is part of a campaign for it to move up into the first tier of U/S? copier companies, to join rivals Canon, Ricoh, and Xerox. The move was also a reaction to Xerox's buyout of copier retail chain Global Imaging last year, as more and more the copier manufacturers swallow up the most profitable part of dealer layer that stands between them and the customer.

Study: Small businesses risk losing key documents

A study commissioned by Epson Canada found that many small businesses are not storing documents vital to them and customers electronically. While most companies have hard copy versions of critical documents in file cabinets, the idea of systematically saving documents electronically (and with proper backup) has still not caught on.

According to the study as described in a CNW News Group release, “90 percent of those who do not store any documents in soft copy say they have not adopted an electronic system to store their important business documents because they believe it is not necessary to do so (50 percent) or they never thought about it (25 percent) or they think it's too expensive (15 percent). The remaining 10 percent admitted they didn't understand the importance of making soft copies of important business documents like contracts or invoices and storing them electronically.”

In addition, only 10 percent of those surveyed said that they store hard copies in a fireproof file cabinet onsite, and even fewer, 2 percent, saved hard copies offsite. All this is in spite of the fact that even small enterprises are more and more dependent on a growing number of critical documents.

This is in spite of the relative ease and low cost of storing files electronically and backing them up offsite. While most midsize companies with a real IT plan have made recoverable electronic document storage a priority, apparently the smallest companies have no recovery plan for a catastrophic incident like a fire or robbery.

New Canon production-oriented scanner

The Canon imageFORMULA DR-X10C is a high-end color scanner that runs at 128ppm in black-and-white and color. The top of the impressive Canon scanner line, it is priced at $17,995. The scan speed is 128ppm in simplex and 256ipm n duplex, in both black-and-white and color. Canon rates this machine for a 60,000 scans-per-day duty cycle. The scanner includes some innovative features, including three ultrasonic double-feed sensors, a double feed back-out and retry function, new dust prevention features than promise clearer scans, and the ability to scan documents up to 22" x 34". These are on top of the strong Canon scanning features.

New Kyocera black-and-white printer

Kyocera Mita America earlier this month announced a new and fast desktop laser printer, the FS-1300D. This compact monochrome machine is a single-user model with a USB connection standard, and an optional Ethernet interface.

The FS-1300D comes with a 50-sheet bypass tray and a 250 sheet of input tray standard. You can add up to two optional 250-sheet add-on trays. The exit tray holds 250 sheets. First-page-out time is 6 seconds, very good in its class. Automatic duplexing is standard. Versions of PCL and PostScript are also standard.

Innovations on this model include a color LED status panel and a status monitor that sends info to the user’s desktop,

The list price for the unit is $530. That’s not cheap, but Kyocera is not in the business of competing with the low-end. This model offers superior speed and paper capacity, plus a rugged 25,000 pages per month duty cycle.

A few industry trends

Talking with Toshiba dealers at their conference last week, I heard the following:
▪ Color units represent between 50-70 percent of units installed. That is even more remarkable when you consider that Toshiba does not sell lo=end color single-function printers and that, as we have noted before, has not had, up until now, a full range of Toshiba-manufactured color copiers (The ones above 55ppm were relabeled Ricoh models.)
▪ Most buyers of color systems are upgrading from current black-and-white systems. Moreover, color devices are being placed through the whole range of customer types.
▪ While buyers are very insistent on demanding access controls and accounting software to regulate color use and cut down on unnecessary color printing, the truth is that, once the systems are installed, most customers don’t use these tools.
▪ Customers are getting more and more used to using copier-multifunctionals as fax machines.
▪ Dealers are well aware of the need to become “solutions providers,” that is, to accompany the sales of hardware with extensive software supports in such areas as document management, accounting, and workflow. Most have allocated technical staff and sales support to that end. But all report that it’s a tough sell, with long lead time and sometimes disappointing results. It’s one thing to get a single exec to sign off on a copier; it’s quite another to get a group of managers to agree on how and when documents will be stored digitally, how they will be protected and accessed. The sales cycle stretches out as the customers starts to redesign the way business is conducted. Yes, if carried out right, it can make you ever more indispensable to our customers, but it does involve a big investment in staffing and training with a long-term payback.

Toshiba rolls out new color copier/MFPs

Toshiba announced last week a number of new models to be released over the next few quarters. At the top of the list is a set of new high-end color copier/MFPs. These models, which range from 55ppm in color and black-and-white to 65ppm in color and 75ppm in black-and-white, bring Toshiba into parity with key rivals.

The new models will replace Toshiba’s current high-end color line, which are relabeled Ricoh machines. Dealers for Toshiba were happy to get Toshiba-made products in this growing market segment, as they were reportedly losing sales to Ricoh, Lanier, and Savin dealers who could claim more expertise with their own machines.

At the same time, Toshiba announced a set of new mid-volume color copier/MFPs. These range from 23ppm to 45ppm in both color and black-and-white, and are upgrades from current Toshiba models.

The complete list of new color models:
▪ e-STUDIO 2330c (23ppm color, 23ppm black-and-white)
▪ e-STUDIO 2830c (28ppm color, 28ppm black-and-white)
▪ e-STUDIO 3530c (35ppm color, 35ppm black-and-white)
▪ e-STUDIO 4520c (45ppm color, 45ppm black-and-white)
▪ e-STUDIO 5520c (55ppm color, 55ppm black-and-white)
▪ e-STUDIO 6520c (65ppm color, 65ppm black-and-white)
▪ e-STUDIO 6530c (65ppm color, 75ppm black-and-white)

Kodak unveils a new desktop scanner

This time, Kodak is releasing the ScanMate i1120, a multipurpose desktop scanner with strong document-scanning features. It has a list price of $495 and scans at 20ppm in both color and black-and-white.

The i1120 allows you to send a scanned file directly to email or to file. Kodak boasts of its easy-to-program and preconfigure scanning destinations with a one-touch interface Kodak calls “smart touch”. For example, you can program one key for sending expense reports as searchable grayscale PDF files to a specific server folder, or send a shipping order as a multipage color TIFF as an email attachment to the shipping department or to a client.

The ScanMate i1120 also has solid scan features, including blank page removal, image rotation, and dual stream scanning (for example, making a color TIFF for an email and a monochrome PDF for filing).

The longest document ever scanned!

That’s a feat that scanner maker Böwe Bell & Howell is planning to undertake, one for the Guinness Book of Records. BBH, we are informed, will attempt to scan a document half a mile long using the Truper 3600 document scanner. The document will be the equivalent of around 2,800 letter-size sheets laid end-to-end.

It’s a fun stunt to publicize the existence of a “long document mode” on the BBH scanner. The feat will be performed at a healthcare IT industry convention. That’s the proper place, as long scans are usually from instrument readouts from devices like EKGs (though it must be said that half a mile is one hell of a stress test).

Oh well, it beats the usual flogging of speeds, feeds, and megahertz. Apparently, the Guinness people will be there to make sure no cheating is involved.

Canon releases high-speed color scanner

Canon announced the release of its imageFORMULA DR-X10C Color Production Scanner. This high-end machine scans at a speed up to 128 pages per minute or (in duplex) 256 images per minute. It has a duty cycle of 60,000 pages.

This new machine builds in many of the hardware and software enhancements already developed for Canon scanners. These include such features as staple detection, page size detection, auto color detection, retry feeding, and strong ultrasonic double-feed detection. A new feature prevents dust from reducing the sharpness of the scans. It can scan documents up to 22" x 34" in size.

Canon releases new color copier

Canon has just released a new color copier-multifunctional aimed at small-to-midsize workgroups. The Color imageRUNNER C2550 prints and copies in color at 23ppm and in black-and-white at 25 ppm.

The controller hosts an impressive 1.5GB of RAM and 80GB hard disk drive. The basic machine supports Canon’s UFR II host-based printing, but can be upgraded to PostScript and/or PCL. A multiposition internal finisher is available as well as a two-tray job separator. A 50-sheet two-sided document feeder (DADF) is also an option.

The list price for this compact new model is $8,000.