Is Samsung In Talks To Sell PC Business To Lenovo ??

Samsung, who earlier this year offloaded their printer business to HP for more than $1 Billion is now looking to exit the PC business globally.

Last year ChannelNews exclusively revealed that Samsung had exited the Australian PC, now we can reveal that the Company is using International law firm Paul Hastings to negotiate a deal with Chinese PC Company Lenovo who in the past has acquired IBM’s PC and server business along with Motorola.

Lenovo is being represented in the discussions by US Lawyers Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

The deal tipped to be between $750 and $850M dollars is expected to be announced shortly. It’s not known whether the Galaxy Tablet will be included in the deal along with the Tab 2S.

A former Samsung executive said “Considering the close business relationship between PCs and printers, it seems obvious that Samsung, after its PC business sell-off, is withdrawing from the PC market.”

The move that will have no impact in the Australian market will bolster Lenovo revenues in Europe, Asia and the USA where Samsung notebooks are still on sale at retail stores such as Best Buy and Dixons in the UK.

At this stage of the discussions nothing has been confirmed and Lenovo who are struggling to deliver profits could walk away from the deal.

Ricoh and the Cognitive Whiteboard

At IBM’s World of Watson event, Ricoh demonstrated Watson Natural Language Classifier which embeds cognitive capabilities into Ricoh’s whiteboards.

These cognitive whiteboards (for the moment let’s call them “Watson Whiteboards”) are currently on display in the IBM IoT headquarters in Munich where clients can experience the capabilities first-hand…

The print, audio and visual infrastructure of the enterprise – along with the tremendous amounts of data any company produces – can be better orchestrated, captured and analyzed thanks to smart whiteboard products with IBM Watson IoT. Now Ricoh whiteboards can connect the collaborative elements of the organization:

This solution also leads to better knowledge retention thanks to Watson IoT’s ability to capture all voice conversation and whiteboard interactions, and then share the transcripts with meeting participants.

On top of this, a natural language interface to the interactive whiteboard encourages creativity and also helps meetings run more efficiently. The whiteboard, among other things, captures and translates speech in real-time.

For example, Ricoh UK could be holding a meeting in London where in Tokyo Japanese engineers following the meeting subject could be receiving and reviewing a translated version of the meeting. OK, that’s impressive…

It impressed IBM so much that IBM features 82 of these Watson-infused Ricoh whiteboards in IBM’s Munich Center.

Go Watson and Ricoh’s whiteboard

 

MPS and printer security

According to experts, printer security is the biggest differentiator when considering MPS, and that although businesses are strong in securing laptops, smartphones and tablets, printer security is often ignored, reported Search it Channel. The article noted that “over 70 percent of organisations have experienced a print-related data breach”, and that Quocirca, a print research and advisory firm, said that “over 75 percent indicated that print is critical or important to business activities”.

More companies are using MFP products, said Louella Fernandes, Quocirca’s Associate Director of Print Services and Solutions, which increase productivity and are cost-effective but need to be managed, as they can be a security risk. She stated that “the top concern around print security is the need to control confidential or sensitive information printed to shared printers. Notably, organisations using a managed print service [MPS] are most concerned, rating this on average 4.1 out of 5 compared to 3.1 for non-MPS users”.

The main reason businesses use an MPS provider, she added, is to cut down costs, although many say security is also important, and there is a rise from 75 percent to 85 percent who felt this about security, according to a 2016 Quocirca report. Brendan Morse, Senior Analyst for InfoTrends, added that “while printed pages retrieved by the wrong person or forgotten at the device is a very serious security issue found in many businesses, there are many threats many businesses do not give anywhere enough attention to”.

This is because MFPs have access to the internet, apps, email and “enterprise content management systems”, meaning they are more at risk of a security breach, and Morse added that “thus, any internal and intrusion risk applies to [MFPs] and printers. Given today’s landscape, this means the threats are constant and wide-ranging”.

Cindy Dwyer, Marketing for HP Inc’s Worldwide Print Security, agreed that printers are vulnerable, noting that “with the perimeter weakening, devices behind the firewall are becoming at risk for cybercrime. IT managers inherently know this but perceive that a printer hack would be fairly benign or simply malicious – such as being able to push a print-out without authorisation or take a printer down.

“In reality printers can be a source to exfiltrate company and customer data or acquire user credentials to gain further access to the network”. Morse noted that the financial industry is ahead of the security game and that most other business don’t “appreciate the magnitude of the threats” from the print environment.

He pointed out that “for example, InfoTrends research indicates that 95 percent of financial services firms say security is an important buying factor for MFPs and printers. But this number drops significantly in other industries and in smaller organisations”. He concluded that security risks need to be kept up with and said that “the good news is there is a relatively mature set of software and services offerings that are sufficient for most businesses.

“Managed print services providers are renewing their focus in this area because of these advantages”.

Canon, Ricoh in close competition to win Indian digital printer market

 

Digital imaging company Canon India introduced new Single Function Laser Printers LBP 351x, LBP 352x and the Multi-function MF 515x.

Canon India, the subsidiary of Canon Singapore, informed that these products are designed to address the printing needs of the Government, Large Enterprises, BFSI and Healthcare segment.

Priced in the range of INR 87,495 to INR 149,999, these printers can print above the speed of 40 PPM, which is a first from Canon for the Laser printer portfolio.

Canon image CLASS LBP 351x / LBP 352x printers support mobile and cloud printing. They offer black-and-white printing speed at 55ppm and 62ppm respectively with minimal power consumption.

Meanwhile, Canon imageCLASS MF 515x is a heavy duty multi-function printing device suited for high demanding work environments.

It protects sensitive documents using Secure PIN printing that secures documents when printing from a PC or mobile device. The device also supports Legal Sized scanning and 1 GB RAM memory capacity.

The device host an array of features supporting mobile printing, two-sided printing, auto-duplex scanning and eco-friendly operations.

“Enterprise Laser segment is a significant market for Canon and we are dedicated to providing them with outstanding print technology and innovations,” said Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India.

“With this launch, we aim to further augment the presence of CIPL A4-Laser printers in the Commercial Printing Segment, thereby considerably raising our market share from the existing 26 percent,” he added.

Canon’s announcement followed a day after Ricoh, it’s rival, unveiled two new products in its color laser printer range – RICOH SPC435DN and RICOH SPC440DN.

RICOH SPC440DN is said to print at the same speed of Canon’s newly announced printers.

The RICOH SP C435DN is designed for the budget conscious office. It provides a wider range of media options — including thicker media stocks up to 256 gsm.

It comes with a 4-line LCD control panel, which will help a user to easily check settings, monitor supplies and perform other key tasks in moments and transition from one job to the next.

RICOH SPC435DN and RICOH SPC440DN are available in the market at the price of INR 70,800 and INR147,770, respectively.

According to research firm IDC, hardcopy peripheral (HCP) market in India dropped 4.7 percent sequentially in the second quarter of 2016 to reach 757,783 in terms of shipments. The decline was driven by low demand from government and corporates.

Overall, HP managed to achieve 43.1 percent shipment share in the second quarter of 2016. Canon had a market share of 21.2 percent and grew 21.9 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Similarly, Epson grew by 4.1 percent and achieved 20.9 per cent market share.

A breakdown of data showed that overall HCP inkjet market advanced 10.6 percent quarter-on-quarter with HP and Epson witnessing sequential growth of 8.8 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

At the same time, the laser HCP (printer-based) market declined by 14.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter in terms of unit shipments.

HP retained its top position with a share of 55.8 per cent, followed by Canon and Samsung at the second and third position, respectively.

In September, HP agreed to buy Samsung Electronics’ printer business for $1.05 billion. The deal is expected to close in 12 months.

Award winning Workflow Solution for The Law Institute of Victoria

Driven by the need to reduce time spent manually handling documents and burdened with the expense to securely store documents safely the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) embarked on a major project that would digitise their records and documents.   The project would revolutionise the way LIV worked, to move forward into the digital age with a sustainable conscious.

LIV implemented Ricohs’ Workflow Solution powered by Laserfiche and have gained some fantastic results already.

• 20% reduction in paper handling
• Irradiated paper from accounts handling
• Increased employee efficiency and improved collaboration

View the case study here:

IDC ITMarketScape names Ricoh a global leader in high-speed inkjet market

Ricoh today announced that a new IDC ITMarketScape names the company a global leader in high-speed inkjet. Its InfoPrint 5000 and its RICOH Pro VC60000 production print platforms have served as the foundation for a massive global footprint bolstered significantly by Ricoh’s proven software and its services strategy. The IDC ITMarketScape: Worldwide High-Speed Inkjet Press 2016 Vendor Assessment^*1 highlights this foundation, and support for a wide range of solutions and applications, as Ricoh’s successful strengths.

 

Ricoh’s service-led approach combines its expertise, experience and training. The global provider of market intelligence credits Ricoh’s leadership position to its commitment to innovation, which is exemplified by its 200 worldwide inkjet patents.

 

“While we are pleased with how well our hardware, the InfoPrint 5000 series and the RICOH Pro VC60000, have been received, we at Ricoh are especially proud of the recognition this latest IDC report gives our commitment to putting customers first,” said Jeff Paterra, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Technology & Solutions Development, Ricoh Company, Ltd. “In any business-to-business industry, and especially in the production print space, it’s easy to allow your focus to narrow on speeds and feeds. At Ricoh, we look at what our people, processes and technologies are doing for our customers, and what more they can be doing. It is our aim to grow in the ways that are most useful for our customers, today, tomorrow and beyond.”

 

*1. Report details: IDC ITMarketScape: Worldwide High-Speed Inkjet Press 2016 Vendor Assessment (doc # US40331116, September 2016)

 

About IDC ITMarketScape
IDC ITMarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. IDC ITMarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360 degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.

Ricoh Products Recognized in German Design Award 2017

Ricoh today announced that it has won three awards at this year’s German Design Award 2017 in the category Excellent Product Design. Details of the awards are as follows.

Winner	RICOH THETA S      360-degree camera RICOH Pro 9100 Series      Production Printers
Special Mention	RICOH Pro VC60000      Production Printers

 

Winner

RICOH THETA S      360-degree camera The RICOH THETA S is a high-end model of the “RICOH THETA” series, 360-degree cameras that can capture fully spherical scenes surrounding the photographer. The RICOH THETA S offers significant improvements in performance, such as capturing 360-degree still images and video in higher quality with the addition of live view functionality. It also inherits the design of the original devices that won multiple design awards.

RICOH Pro 9100 Series      Production Printers A color digital printing system for print firms. Meeting high demand for commercial printing, with high image quality/stable quality/various paper support, it can produce DM/catalog/package/postcard and other prints. Especially the system manages new needs of “multiple/small-lot, short-term, variable (content-specific)” printing unfit for offset printing, helping printers expand services.

 

Special Mention

RICOH Pro VC60000      Production Printers A high-speed full-color inkjet printing system for continuous forms for core business prints like invoices/commercial prints like direct mail. High-speed/image quality, this model solely performs high-resolution image printing by offset printing and variable b/w text/address printing by continuous feed to realize shorter/simple processes. The fully metallic, robust exterior and internal system is for long-term use in print firms.

 

German Design Award

The German Design Award is a prestigious international design award by the German Design Design-related awards won by Ricoh (Bundestag). From among products with outstanding designs around the world, those recommended by the German Design Council alone are nominated for the award, which is structured in four tiers: firstly, Gold; secondly, Winner; thirdly, Special Mention and fourthly, Nominee. Gold, Winner ,and Special Mention are prizes awarded to superior designs among the nominees.