IT Spending to reach A$85 Billion in 2017 as the battle for the digital platform begins: Gartner

Analysts at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016 on the Gold Coast, last week predicted total IT spending in Australia is will reach almost A$85 billion in 2017.

This represents a 2.8 percent increase from 2016, as organizations build out their digital platform, according to Gartner, Inc. In New Zealand, IT spending is forecast to surpass NZ$11.5 billion, a 2.4 percent increase from 2016. Globally, IT spending will be driven by growth in software and IT services revenue and is forecast to reach $3.5 trillion in 2017, up 2.9 percent from 2016 estimated spending of $3.4 trillion, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The bright spot for the Asia/PaciDic region has also been the software and IT services segments. Software spending is projected to grow 6.4 percent in 2016, and it will grow another 10.2 percent in 2017 to total $35.6 billion (see Table 1). IT services spending is on pace to grow 2.9 percent in 2016 to reach $93 billion, and increase 4.1 percent in 2017 to reach $98.8 billion. Speaking to an audience of more than 1,500 CIOs and IT leaders at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and global head of Research at Gartner, said that every organization needs a digital platform strategy. The battle for ownership of digital platforms, where networks of stakeholders bring value to each other, has begun, said Mr. Sondergaard. The good news is that theres incredible opportunities for those companies that innovate, lead and ultimately succeed in the creation of new digital platforms that meet their customers needs better than their competitors. The bad news for those hearing about this seismic shift for the Dirst time is, basically, youre already a long way behind.

Not every organization should assume a leadership role in a business ecosystem; however, CIOs must collaborate with their business counterparts to integrate digital platform development into their technology and business strategic planning, said Mr. Sondergaard.

Brewing a Better Battery: Researchers Pulling Power from Brewery Wastewater

After cultivating their fungus from wastewater, the researchers bake it to a char; charred fungus is higher in carbon, which provides the raw material for batteries. | Images credit: University of Colorado Boulder

Engineers from the University of Colorado Boulder (CUB) have developed a bio-manufacturing process that uses a biological organism cultivated in brewery wastewater to create the carbon-based materials needed to make energy storage cells.

The process could represent a win-win by reducing expensive wastewater treatment costs for beer makers while providing manufacturers with a more cost-effective means of creating renewable, naturally derived fuel cell technologies.

“Breweries use about seven barrels of water for every barrel of beer produced,” said Tyler Huggins, a graduate student in CU Boulder’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) and lead author of the new study. “And they can’t just dump it into the sewer because it requires extra filtration.”

The process of converting biological materials, or biomass, such as timber into carbon-based battery electrodes is currently used in some energy industry sectors. But, naturally occurring biomass is inherently limited by its short supply, impact during extraction and intrinsic chemical makeup, rendering it expensive and difficult to optimize.

However, the CU Boulder researchers utilize the unsurpassed efficiency of biological systems to produce sophisticated structures and unique chemistries through cultivation of a fast-growing fungus, Neurospora crassa, in the sugar-rich wastewater produced by a similarly fast-growing Colorado industry: breweries.

“The wastewater is ideal for our fungus to flourish in, so we are happy to take it,” Huggins said.

By growing their feedstock in wastewater, the researchers say they were able to better dictate the fungus’s chemical and physical processes from the start – thereby creating one of the most efficient naturally derived lithium-ion battery electrodes known to date while cleaning the wastewater in the process.

The findings were published recently in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.

If the process were applied on a large scale, breweries could significantly reduce their municipal wastewater costs while manufacturers would gain access to a cost-effective incubating medium for advanced battery technology components.

“The novelty of our process is changing the manufacturing process from top-down to bottom-up,” said Zhiyong Jason Ren, an associate professor in CU Boulder’s CEAE Department and a co-author of the new study. “We’re bio-designing the materials right from the start.”

Huggins and study co-author Justin Whiteley, also of CU Boulder, have filed a patent on the process and created Emergy, a startup aimed at commercializing the technology.

“We see large potential for scaling because there’s nothing required in this process that isn’t already available,” Huggins said.

The researchers have partnered with Boulder’s Avery Brewing Company to explore a larger pilot program for the technology. Huggins and Whiteley recently competed in the finals of a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored startup incubator competition at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois.

“This research speaks to the spirit of entrepreneurship at CU Boulder,” said Ren, who plans to continue experimenting with the mechanisms and properties of the fungus growth within the wastewater. “It’s great to see students succeeding and creating what has the potential to be a transformative technology. Energy storage represents a big opportunity for the state of Colorado and beyond.”

The CUB students aren’t the first to notice the power in beer waste: In 2015 another startup, Waste2Watergy, formed at Oregon State University, secured a $225,000 federal grant to advance technology that cleans organics from brewery wastewater while producing electricity. And brewers themselves have begun putting their wastewater to all kinds of productive uses in recent years –Bear Republic and Sierra Nevada have both used it to produce biogas to power their operations, while MillerCoors and a handful of Maine breweries are turning it into animal feed.

Automating Print for Profits

Check out this story by Henryk Krasewski – Senior Product & Marketing Manager @ Ricoh Australia on page 24 in the latest edition of Australian Printer.

http://australianprinter.realviewdigital.com/?iid=147662

Sharp to close LED factory in Japan

Sharp is set to take an axe to its domestic production and research capacity by closing a factory for electronic parts as it streamlines operations under its new parent, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn.

Sharp is preparing to close the Mihara factory in Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, as early as 2017, then push more work to its Fukuyama factory in the same prefecture. It also plans to downsize its liquid crystal display television factory in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

The troubled Japanese electronics company is currently drafting a medium-term business plan under the direction of its new president, Tai Jeng-wu, who is also Hon Hai’s vice chairman. The plan will likely include measures to streamline Sharp’s domestic operations.

Sharp produces light-emitting diode products and semiconductor lasers, among other things, at the Mihara factory. Some 300 employees at the factory are said to have been already informed of the closure plan.

Production will shift from the Mihara factory to the nearby Fukuyama factory, along with employees. The Fukuyama factory produces camera parts for Apple’s smartphones.

In the year to March, Sharp suffered a group loss of 255.9 billion yen ($2.46 billion), partly due to its stagnant LCD operations. It hopes to return to operating profit in the current fiscal year and to turn a net profit the following year. It is apparently aiming at a record 200 billion yen in operating profit in the year to March 2020.

(Nikkei)

Ricoh Europe : launches next generation industrial inkjet printheads

Print innovators can boost quality and speed of inkjet application, thanks to a new series of industrial printheads from Ricoh.

The Ricoh MH5420 series feature proprietary bonding technology for improved durability, and are compatible with a wider variety of fluids. The extended compatibility means users can print with water-based, solvent or UV inks – enabling them to extend their offering.

The Ricoh MH5421LVF and Ricoh MH5421F printheads enable highly stable jetting performance through the introduction of a new recirculating structure, reducing the risk of jetting failure caused by clogged ink. Other benefits to this include:

• Increased reliability for single-pass systems to improve print quality and productivity
• Increased reliability for systems with rapid setting ink, such as white or metallic materials
• Removal of bubbles in the chamber to enable self-recovery from jetting failure

The first printhead in the series will be commercially available from January 2017.

Graham Kennedy, Head of Commercial Ink Jet Business, Ricoh Europe, said: ‘There is a rapidly growing demand in the industrial printing market across both mature and embryonic applications fuelled by a wide variety of customer needs. Digitisation of industrial printing can deliver greater flexibility and productivity for these businesses, which is where Ricoh’s new MH5421 printhead series offers solutions to these needs.’

Products	RICOH MH5421	RICOH MH5421LVF	RICOH MH5421F
Number of nozzles	1,280, staggered
Resolutions	600dpi
Drop volume	7/14/21pl (depending on the ink)
Ink	Aqueous, Solvent, UV
Flow structure	－	○	○
Recommended ink viscosity	11mPa・s	6 mPa・s	11 mPa・s
Planned launch date	January 2017	February 2017	March 2017

mPa・s: Unit of viscosity (millipascal-second) – higher numbers mean higher viscosity

Ricoh at Inprint 2016
Ricoh will showcase its latest inkjet technology innovations at the industrial print show, Inprint, which takes place at MiCo – Milano Congressi from 15-17 November. At stand E50 inkjet experts will demonstrate the company’s existing inkjet products and new technology. They will also discuss how customers can achieve their specific inkjet goals.

Ricoh’s inkjet business
Ricoh has a long and rich heritage in the world of inkjet technology. This dates back over 30 years and enables it to support a wide variety of inkjet printing systems. The company also supports partners in diverse industrial and specialty markets such as wide format graphics, 3D printing, textile and digital enhancements.

Can the print industry survive digital disruption?

“Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly” Clayton Christensen

With a business model predicated on selling hardware and consumables, how can the print industry innovate in a market which may be rapidly reaching its sell by date?

There has been much talk about disruption in the print industry, particularly with the latest acquisition of Samsung’s printer business by HP, where HP boldly claims it will disrupt the copier market. The market has seen a wave of consolidation – HP now operates as two separate companies, Xerox has separated its technology business and its service business, now called Conduent. The Foxconn Technology Group acquired Sharp in August 2016 and Lexmark’s acquisition by a Chinese consortium led by Apex Technology is now approved. So what does the future hold for the print industry, one that is hardware-centric and reliant on the printed page? Can it truly reinvent itself for the digital age?

Surviving the digital onslaught

Change or die has long been the mantra in a technology landscape that is facing a range of disruptive forces – smartphones, cameras, sensors, social media, the cloud, analytics. Emerging technology such as 3D printing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are poised to create yet more disruption, while new models of service consumption have enabled companies such as Uber and Air BnB to re-write the rules of the markets they have entered.

The print industry is already feeling the force of the digital age; information is increasingly read, shared and distributed online rather than on paper. As with any legacy industry reliant on a huge hardware installed base, manufacturers must find new areas of innovation whilst protecting their core business. Add to this the ongoing revenue stream through consumables, and it is obvious that manufacturers face the dilemma of finding new growth areas for printing whilst making their products relevant in today’s digital age.

If we take it back to basics, print is a delivery mechanism for sharing and delivering information and content. The print industry is not alone in the mammoth task of reinventing a traditional platform for content delivery – think TV, film, music – where formats such as CD and DVDs are being killed by the Internet and digital streaming subscription services. For instance, as Netflix was moving from DVDs to streaming, its CEO, Reed Hastings, warned of the danger that organisations face in “failing to look for new things their customers want because they are afraid to hurt their core business”.

Yet print is far from dead. Print’s tangibility and durability; its credibility and trust can set it apart from the noisy cluttered online landscape. Research has shown that readers are more likely to retain information on printed material leading to higher engagement levels. Print offers our undivided attention, rather than the multitasking experience with online content.

Although print is not dying any time soon, manufacturers must connect to their customers in more meaningful ways. This means creating products and services that leverage their heritage in print but also connect seamlessly into the digital and online world.

Quocirca believes that print manufacturers must exploit the following opportunities:

• Adapt to the “as-a-service economy”. The consumer preference for services over products and subscriptions over purchases is permeating into the business market. This is driven by increasing customer demand for flexibility that will allow them to take advantage of new technologies. With an as-a-service model, customers are not burdened by significant upgrade costs and can more accurately estimate the on-going cost of access to technology. Managed Print Services (MPS) is already an established service model in the market, offering a lucrative recurring services revenue model along with increased customer retention long after the printer hardware sale. While the MPS market is relatively mature in the enterprise space, there are further opportunities to tap into the largely under-penetrated SMB market with “print-as-a-service” offerings. For the channel, digital services around printer device diagnostics and predictive/ preventative maintenance have significant untapped potential. MPS vendors should drive further innovation in their engagements around cloud delivery, security and mobility. These are key enablers, not only for the as-a-service economy but also digital transformation.
• Drive the digital transformation journey. Despite talk of its demise, paper remains a key element of the connected and collaborative office workplace and still plays critical role in the business processes of many organisations. However, paper bottlenecks can hinder business productivity and efficiency. Print vendors are well positioned to connect the paper and digital worlds and are developing stronger expertise in workflow solutions and services. In many cases, the leveraging of investments in smart multi-function peripherals (MFPs), which have evolved to become sophisticated document processing platforms, provides vendors with an opportunity to maximise the value of their hardware offerings. Vendors need to change legacy perceptions of their brand and be accepted as a trusted partner in the enterprise digitisation journey. Business process optimisation and workflow capabilities will become a key point of differentiation for vendors in the industry, requiring a balanced hardware, software and service portfolio.
• Leverage Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. All printers are things and the connected smart MFP is part of the IoT landscape. Vendors can exploit the enormous data generated to monitor actual customer product and service usage. This data enables manufacturers to deliver better service performance through predictive data analytics (think proactive service and supplies replenishment) and by collecting information about customer usage of products or services, vendors can improve product design and accelerate innovation. Developing strategic partnerships with open technology vendors can also pave the way for the seamless integration of printers/MFPs with mobile devices and drive the development of a broader mobile solutions and services ecosystem.
• Expand high value customised print services. Many of the traditional print vendors can leverage their own or third party hardware (including print, visual and display signage technology), services and tools to develop cross media channel communications. Think interactive print above and beyond Quick Response (QR) codes as a way of connecting off-line and on-line marketing messages. The print industry must therefore become more aligned to brands – for instance Coca-Cola’s European “Share a Coke” campaign used HP’s Indigo digital press technology to create personalised labels. Meanwhile, the use of augmented reality (AR) technology is being used alongside print media to create an immersive and engaging interaction with the reader. This requires an AR app (such as Blippar, Layar or Augment) which uses image capture technology to launch interactive content from a smartphone or tablet. Such interactive print solutions bring print to life, for instance pointing a smartphone at a billboard ad or printed magazine can generate a movie trailer, 3D interactive model, enhanced photographs that move and speak and so on. One print vendor that has made progress in this area is Ricoh, with its Clickable Paper solution.

Future Outlook

The print industry is not immune to digital disruption. Print manufacturers have thrived for many years by focusing on their core engineering competencies to create competitive advantage. Many have focused their efforts on moving into the profitable managed print services (MPS) market through both acquisitions and refocusing business models. However, as hardware and MPS become increasingly commoditised, software competence will be one of the most important differentiating factors for the industry.

As they face converging market forces, with the right vision and proposition, print manufacturers can play a role in the digital world. Each vendor will fight the battle differently but the smart players will recognise that to adapt and thrive, they must become more open, expand partnerships outside the industry and continuously innovate. This means creating new products, services and/or channels and engaging customers, partners and employees in new ways.

Manufacturers face strategic choices with their response to digital disruption and how they drive relevancy and customer engagement. Ultimately the question remains, is the print industry ready to disrupt itself?

Article by: Louella Fernandes

Work the way you want with Ricoh’s next-generation Flex Series 2.0

Ricoh Australia has launched its new Flex Series 2.0 range of multifunction devices (MFDs), designed to support the needs of the modern, mobile worker. Combining a Smart Device Connector app that allows users to connect from iOS and Android devices, an intuitive smart operation panel and direct cloud access helping users to work the way they want.

Users have the option to operate the Flex Series 2.0 as an interconnected hub to quickly and securely access, transform and distribute the files they need and can access 15 popular cloud services directly.

“Whether for pure convenience or needing to complete an urgent print job on-the-run, employees can simply access and print documents wirelessly via Ricoh’s Smart Device Connector App.

“The Flex Series can also be integrated with Ricoh’s range of Connect and Collaborate solutions – including its interactive flat panels, projection systems and range of applications – for a truly collaborative work experience.”

“With connectivity a necessity for the modern, mobile workforce of today and the proliferation of smart device use in Australia¹, print devices have moved beyond impressive print, copy and scan speeds.

“It has never been more important for organisations to invest in solutions that complement their existing technology ecosystem, while catering to the needs of today’s changing workforce – be it office-bound, on-the-go or remote.”

Additional Flex 2.0 Series’ features include:

• Integrated Cloud allows users to connect with popular cloud-based applications such as Dropbox, Evernote®, Google Drive™, Office 365, SharePoint and many more.
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert hard copy documents into user-friendly digital files. Users can quickly search scanned documents by keyword, as well as edit digital files such as Excel and Word.
• A 10.1-inch smart operation panel offers an improved interactive touchscreen experience with one touch shortcuts, support for multi-touch gestures, custom display settings, access to a variety of applications, and simple pinch and swipe technology similar to that used on smart devices.
• An Intel processing chip delivers improved performance and efficiency.
• New optional hybrid staple/staple-free finishers deliver a range of professional finishing features with and without staples.
• Banner printing capability supporting page length of up to 126cm to cater for a wide range of professional documents, from menus to brochures.
• A Human Detection Sensor enables the Home screen to recover from Sleep Mode in as little as half a second to be ready for to be key operation.

The new models are quiet and eco-friendly, with a new system design that activates only the necessary components required to run a particular function, leading to quieter operation with less heat emission. In addition, selected finisher options come with a new anti-vibration system and noise absorbing materials to further minimise noise levels.

The Flex Series 2.0 models include:

• MP C2004 & MP C2504, 20/25 ppm A3 Colour MFD
• MP C3004 & MP C3504, 30/35 ppm A3 Colour MFD
• MP C4504 & MP C6004, 45/60 ppm A3 Colour MFD

For more information, visit http://flex.ricoh.com.au

 

 

Inspiring New Brand Campaigns: The Process Behind Successful Consumer Engagement

 

Jaclyn Murphy, Director of Brand Purpose at Edelman, opened an inspiring session on Wednesday afternoon where brand purpose was made tangible in four brands – Arla Foods, Unilever, BT and Neste – that shared their experience and insights about how they are working to engage consumers in their purpose and get them involved in creating a change.

“Once brands have done the work of building their purpose into every aspect of their brand, how do you get consumers to care about your purpose, to come along with you, to get involved and do something in support of the cause and actually make a difference,” Murphy said.

Zaid Al-Qassab, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer at BT Group, speaks at the Wednesday afternoon SB’16 Copenhagen session on new brand campaigns and consumer engagement. | Image credit: Longfei Wang/Sustainable Brands

The panelists each shared lessons from recent successful campaigns.

1. Find the Issue that Is Related to Your Brand

Mette Borsting Hofman, Global Senior Brand Activation Manager Arla Foods, a dairy food company that is owned by farmers in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany. Arla Foods purpose is to ‘Make eating well simple and joyful for everyone.’ Hofman said that it is important to tackle causes that are at the heart of your brand. Arla shifted focus from sponsoring sport events and curing diseases, to addressing malnutrition, healthy living and good food habits.

“We want to nudge people to make better food choices,” she explained. “Only 4 percent of children cook with their parents. This means they are not learning the skills and habits of cooking.”

Arla Foods started the Food Camps campaign for students to experience, understand, and feel the fun and satisfaction of learning to cook. The students learn about health and well-being, nature and sustainability, and cooking with multiple ingredients (not just dairy products). The Food Camps host over 70 classes with over 1600 students per year.

Arla has taken a broad approach to cooking and food habits. They have created a global platform where different offshoots of the strategy can be implemented by their brands in other countries, locally. “The global campaign allows us to leave behind a footprint, but at the same time there has to be room for it to be localised so it will work in the local context and markets,” Hofman said.

2. Build a Movement

James Hayhurst, the Global Brand Equity Director at Unilever for the brands Persil, Skipand OMO – usually referred to under the umbrella brand, Dirt is Good. The brand has been running the Dirt is Good campaign for over 10 years to advocate the importance of allowing children to get outside and get dirty, but they questioned whether they were still being heard. Dirt is Good worked with Edelman to bring together statistics that showed less and less children were spending time engaging in ‘real play.’ They moved their purpose forward.

Hayhurst outlined the three-stage model they use to help change behavior – Provoke, Educate, Facilitate.

Provoke: The ‘Free the Kids’ film shocks people, raises awareness and provokes debate around the fact that children spend less time outdoors than prison inmates. This is a divergence from the typically positive tone Persil is known for, but it woke people up! Even though the topic is viewed as controversial, it has been reviewed as being pitched correctly.

Educate: Sir Ken Robinson and other experts within the field of education, creativity and play were brought on board to contribute to a white paper. This created a vehicle to bring together different players within the field to share their opinions and feedback, as well as garner their support. With the help of these experts, Dirt is Good aims to influence policymakers and parents to ensure that ‘real’ play happens everyday.

Facilitate: A global initiative called ‘Outdoor Classroom Day’ has been launched together with an organization, Project Dirt, to encourage teachers to bring children outdoors to learn, play and get dirty. Over 350,000 students around the world have already been signed up to spend at least one class outside in 2016. This is sparking a movement around the world to create more balance in children’s lives.

3. Give Your Customers the Opportunity to Get Involved

Zaid Al-Qassab, is Chief Marketing and Brand Officer at BT Group, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the UK. BT has outlined clear goals as a purposeful company, but it’s not that simple.

“I work for a company that fundamentally does some good stuff, but is struggling to find ways to relate that to consumers and its customers and make that come to life in the market place,” Al-Qassab explained. “Consumers want to hear about the value of your actions in society as a reason to buy into your products,” he explained. BT struggled with relaying to their customers how they were doubling their efforts to offset their carbon footprint, since they are a telecommunications company.

Deciding to change direction, BT determined that the way forward was to help good causes but find something that is linked directly to the business. They launched a ‘Supporters Club’where BT Sport TV subscribers could participate to help set up camps where disadvantaged kids could enhance their lives through sport. This invited them to participate directly in the cause. 27 percent of BT employees volunteered for over 45,000 volunteer days. BT’s purpose is shining through these actions, and consumers are engaging and supporting the initiative because it is something they relate to.

4. Use the Power of Collaboration

Sirpa Tuomi, Marketing Director at renewable diesel and biomaterials producer Neste, discussed how the company set out to build their ‘Pre-Order the Future’ campaign, whereby they are investigating how to use renewable materials in order to help people make more responsible choices for the future. Neste is collaborating with Prince EA, a spoken word artist, environmentalist and futurologist who is helping them share their message and get people’s attention about what the future of products could look like. The video has received 91 million views and they have seen a 68 percent increase in visits to their website since launching the video with Prince EA.

The Pre-Order the Future campaign invites people to submit their ideas for products that will change future generations. Everyone can vote and the winning concept will be prototyped. Not only is Neste supporting other’s ideas and innovations, they are continuously looking for other brands within the renewable and sustainability field to link up with and become part of the bigger discussion. Tuomi stressed the importance about breaking up silos between marketing and communications teams, prototype teams and expert teams – everyone can work together toward nurturing innovation and moving a project like this forward to have the most impact. So far 5 concepts have been prototyped involving new technologies and renewable materials.

You have to be careful that you are not ‘Painting the fence of a dog’s home,’ unless you are a pet food company, recapped Al-Qassib. It might be a lovely thing to do but it’s not what your company is there for. Arla Foods could have engaged in sport, but they engaged in health because it was more aligned with their food company. As he put it, a key theme for purposeful brands developing genuine campaigns and building customer engagement and loyalty is ‘to get involved in something that is in your heartland, and then you have a right to play in that field and shout about it.’ Arla Foods, Unilever, BT Group and Neste look for the right place to intervene and get involved, they stay true to what the company is and your purpose is and don’t stray off it.

 

 

by Melanie Vella

RICOH UNVEILS THETA SC: A FULL-FEATURED 360-DEGREE CAMERA DESIGNED TO APPEAL TO A BROAD RANGE OF CONSUMERS

 

Newest addition to Ricoh’s pioneering Theta line makes it easy for anyone to shoot and share high-quality spherical stills and videos, available in four colors

Ricoh today announced it has added a full-featured, affordably-priced mid-range model to its pioneering line of Theta 360-degree spherical imaging cameras. Merging advanced imaging capabilities with simplified operation, the new Ricoh Theta SC is designed to appeal to the growing numbers of consumers interested in capturing and sharing 360-degree photos and videos.

Since the RICOH THETA was first launched on the market in 2013 as the world’s first 360-degree camera, it has been used in a variety of visual fields. It is an exceptional imaging tool, with fully spherical images creating unique, completely unexpected visual expression. Launched in 2015 as a high-end model, the RICOH THETA S has satisfied user demands for higher image quality and more specialized business applications. Because of this, it has been received exceptionally well by both photographers and business users—people with a keen interest in 360-degree imaging.

Market demand for cameras that capture immersive imagery is on the rise, and experts predict that devices required for augmented- and virtual-reality experiences—such as 360-degree cameras and VR headsets—will be at the top of consumers’ holiday 2016 gift lists.

Ricoh offers the industry’s most extensive line of spherical imaging cameras, known for their high image quality, sleek design and ease of use. Theta cameras are unique in their ability to allow consumers to record fully spherical images that show the entirety of a scene in photos or videos. The pocket-sized Theta SC is the fourth-generation Theta, joining the award-winning, top-of-the-line Theta S and entry-level Theta m15 series cameras.

Like its predecessors, the Theta SC boasts a stylish and sleek design, lending itself to quick and convenient operation. The camera can be handheld with one-button operation or placed on a flat surface or tripod to be remotely controlled by a smartphone and the newly updated Theta S app. It comes in a range of attractive colors including beige, blue, pink and white for a wide range of users.

The Theta SC delivers the same high level of image quality provided the Ricoh Theta S—with a high-performance CMOS image sensor and large-aperture dual lenses—in a more lightweight package. It captures 14-megapixel, high-resolution stills and records high-definition (HD) video clips up to five minutes in duration, in keeping with consumers’ interest in shooting and sharing short video clips. The resulting spherical images can be easily uploaded to the dedicated theta360.com website; posted and shared via Facebook, Google+, Google Maps and YouTube, as well as shared via Twitter and Tumblr.

With the introduction of the Theta SC, Ricoh is also unveiling an updated Theta S app for iOS and Android devices. The newly updated Theta app is designed to be even easier to use— making capturing, viewing, managing and sharing fully spherical imagery a snap.

Shipments of 3D printers to grow 108% this year – Gartner

 

Analyst firm forecasts huge growth in the 3D printing market – with 44% growth in enterprise shipments alone

Worldwide shipments of 3D printers will reach 455,772 units in 2016, more than doubling the 219,168 units shipped in 2015, according to Gartner.

Despite slowing growth rates after the market’s initial growth spurt, the increase in 3D printer shipments over the next four years will see the number of units shipped in 2020 total more than 6.7 million.

“Once a niche market, 3D printing has continued its rapid transformation into a broad-based mainstream technology embraced by consumers and enterprises around the world,” said Pete Basiliere, VP at Gartner. “The evolution of hardware and software along with an ever-expanding collection of usable materials has driven growth in both the consumer and enterprise 3D printing markets.”

3D printing is now experiencing widespread acceptance beyond its application in specialist industries.

Today, the technology is being used to create prototypes, augment manufacturing processes and produce finished products.

Industries in a broad range employ 3D printing to a modest extent. Gartner expects wider and more diverse growth to continue as new technology providers and processes emerge.

Seven technologies constitute the current 3D printer market, with material extrusion forecast to lead the market through 2020, largely due to the low cost of entry-level material extrusion printers.

Stereolithography printer shipments will also grow at a rapid rate as new providers enter the market and the range of printable materials expands.

“The primary market driver for consumer 3D printers costing under $2,500 is the acquisition of low-cost devices by educational institutions and enterprise engineering, marketing and creative departments,” said Basiliere.

3D printers are being utilised by secondary and postsecondary schools to prepare students for careers in engineering, manufacturing, aerospace and robotics.

The primary enterprise 3D printer market drivers are the part quality, material advances and the devices’ ability to make prototypes, tools, fixtures and finished goods.

Prototyping will remain the primary business use for 3D printers throughout the forecast period, while their use to augment manufacturing will grow to 75% of organisations by 2020.

By this time, nearly 65% of discrete manufacturers that expect to use 3D printers will be using them to produce components of the products they sell or service.

“Aircraft and aerospace manufacturers have been taking this approach for years, using 3D printers to produce low-volume parts and small lots of parts with complex designs,” said Basiliere. “Military organisations, whose equipment often has very long lives, are working with defence contractors to evaluate 3D printing of replacement and modified components on shore and at sea.”

From a regional perspective, North America and Western Europe will continue to experience very strong growth in the 3D printer market in 2016. However, their shipment growth rates will continue trailing several regions worldwide.

Gartner predicts that the Greater China, emerging Asia/Pacific and mature Asia/Pacific regions will experience a combination of high 3D printer shipments and high-growth rates through 2020.

This growth will be driven by private sector and public sector organisations that recognise the threat that 3D printing poses to native industries that rely on conventional manufacturing technologies.

 

Article by: http://www.information-age.com/author/benrossi/