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BULLETIN
4
News of HP’s acquisition of Samsung
Electronics for $1.05 billion has
overshadowed the launch of the company’s
first, and long awaited, PageWide A3 inkjet
MFPs and its new range of A3 LaserJet
toner MFPs developed in conjunction with
Samsung.
After failing to crack the $55 billion copier
market with its Edgeline (inkjet) and Mopier (toner)
A3 devices, HP will be hoping to have more success
with its new products and the streamlined channel
programmes it announced at September’s HP Global
Partner Conference.
HP’s rationale for the acquisition of Samsung,
which is expected to close within 12 months, was to
‘accelerate the disruption’ of the copier market. As
Samsung, like HP, is weak in the traditional copier
channel, despite having made big strides in the last
year or so, HP’s appeal will rely heavily on technical
innovation.
Indeed, in its announcement HP stated that its
aim is to ‘reinvent and replace service-intensive
copiers with superior multifunction printing’. As we
report on page 15, the simplicity of Samsung’s MFP
designs, also evident in HP’s new devices (see photo),
is one of its key selling points.
With the largest print acquisition in its history,
HP is not just gaining Samsung’s product range. It
is also acquiring more than 6,500 printing patents
and a global workforce that includes nearly 1,300
researchers and engineers with expertise in laser
printer technology.
HP will have enjoyed the benefits of this at
first hand when working with Samsung on the
development of its 16 new A3 MFPs. These are
claimed to provide world-class print security across
devices, documents and data; advanced monitoring
based on cloud and big-data analytics to predict
service and supply needs; and affordable colour.
HP’s full portfolio of A3 MFPs, including three
PageWide platforms and 13 LaserJet platforms
with print speeds ranging from 22 to 60 pages per
minute, will be launched next year (in Spring and
Autumn). They will be available with a range of
copier-like finishing options, such as in-cave stapler
stacker, hole punch, high capacity staple/stack and
booklet makers, and, in HP’s eyes, uncopier-like fast
repair times.
Qualified channel partners will also benefit from
HP Smart Device Services, a set of free cloud tools
and device-based sensing capabilities designed
to minimise device downtime, for example by
anticipating the need to service parts before they
fail and by avoiding premature ink and toner
replacement.
For fans of HP’s PageWide inkjet technology,
which combines fast printing speeds, low energy
consumption and very low running costs, the most
interesting new launches are the three A3 inkjet
devices. Offering A3 output and print speeds of
40-60 ppm (up to 80 ppm in General Office mode),
these will compete directly with toner-based MFPs.
If HP can replicate in the A3 market the success
it has had with PageWide in the A4 small workgroup
sector, it really could disrupt the copier market, and it
won’t need Samsung’s resources to do so.
BULLETIN
Samsung acquisition overshadows
launch of HP’s first A3 PageWide
printers
in brief...
Go slow offices
The average UK office worker wastes at least
21 days each year due to slow or inefficient
technology, according to a new study by Sharp,
making UK offices the third least productive in
Europe after Italy (23 days wasted) and France
(21 days wasted). The biggest time drains are
searching for files on a server (23 minutes
per day), waiting for a printer to warm up
(7 minutes) and waiting for pages to be printed
(10 minutes).
Setting a bad example
Business leaders are the worst offenders when
it comes to mismanaging sensitive business
information, claims Iron Mountain, following
research showing that 57% of CxOs and MDs
have left business-sensitive or confidential
information on the printer for all to see. Almost
half (43%) have disposed of documents in a
potentially insecure bin and 39% have lost
business information in a public place. Senior
managers appear to be playing fast and loose
with digital data too: 49% have used a personal
email account to send sensitive business
information and 40% have sent information over
an insecure wireless network.
A lifetime’s work
According to new research from Avery UK, the
average office worker will receive 537,860
emails during their working lifetime and print
343,504 pages. They will also spend 13 minutes
and 13 seconds every day searching for missing
paperwork and stationery. Almost nine out of
10 of the 2,000 office workers surveyed (85%)
agreed that having a clear filling system and
knowing where everything is makes their job less
stressful. More information is available at
.
With you in a dash
Samsung has announced that its customers will be able to order print supplies from Amazon
automatically following the launch of Amazon Dash in the UK.
When connected printers and MFPs signed up to the Amazon Dash Replenishment service detect low toner
and ink levels, they automatically send notifications to Samsung Cloud Print, which then relays them to Amazon
which will deliver the required replacements.
Customers, including small- and medium-sized businesses, can easily sign up for Dash Replenishment through
Samsung’s Mobile Print app.
David SW Song, Senior Vice President of Printing Solutions Business at Samsung Electronics, said: “Initially
this service was available to our U.S. customers. We are pleased to announce that Dash Replenishment options
are now available to our customers in Germany and the UK as well.”
Dash Replenishment is available with a range of Samsung home office printers and MFPs, including the
SL-C430W, SL-C480FW, SL-M2835DW and SL-M2885FW.
No Dash button required: Samsung printers
will re-order supplies automatically.
