A 7% Increase in Printer and Copier Market Discovered in Q2 2012

According to the research firm Gartner, the combined serial inkjet and page printers, copiers and multifunction products market in the United States totaled 7,150,202 units in the second quarter of 2012, a 6.8% increase over the same period last year. The total end-user spending reached $208.1 million USD, an increase of 35% from the same period last year as well.

According to Gartner Research Analyst Amrita Choudhury, "The MFP market growth here has been driven by the banking, financial services and insurance, education and government sectors." Choudhury went on to say that the market also gained some traction in the high speed segment, often used by large publishing houses or organizations to print their outbound communications. 

HP remained on top in the markets for printers, copiers and multifunction printers, accounting for 51.4% of shipments. Canon pulled in the number 2 spot with 23%, while Samsung and Epson rounded out the leaders with 8.3% and 8.1%, respectively. In the A4 MFP segment, HP was the market leader as well with a 48.2% market share, followed by Samsung with 22.7% and Canon with 13.7%. The A3 flatbed copier MFP segment saw Canon leading the pack with a 28.9% market share. Konica Minolta took the number 2 spot with 19.7% and Ricoh commanded 12.8% of the market. 

Not everything was positive, however, with the inkjet printer market declining 7.2% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. HP, which accounted for 50.8% of the total sales in the segment, also saw a decline of 23.6%. Epson held a market share of 30% and also had a shipment decline of 8.8%. Canon also improved shipments in the inkjet division by increasing by 136% compared to the second quarter of 2011, contributing 18.8% of market share.

Source: NDTV Gadgets - Printers and copiers market grows 7%: Gartner

Brand Keys Awards Kinoca Minolta MFP Office Copier of the Year

Konica Minolta U.S.A. has just announced that it was recently awarded first place in the 2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index in the category of "MFP Office Copier". This marks the fifth consecutive year the company has won this award. Every year, Brand Keys publishes its Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, which surveys 49,000 Americans in order to determine how brands rank in customer loyalty. This year's index examined customers' relationships with 600 brands in a total of 83 categories.

Brand Keys' 2012 research accurately shows the category drivers that engage customers, engender loyalty and drive profits. The company's methodology, which considered a plethora of competitors, surveyed customers and asked them to characterize their perfect product in the MFP Office Copier category. This set the standard for excellence and identified Konica Minolta as a leading brand for customer loyalty in this category when measured against the "ideal" office copier.

According to a statement by Senior Vice President, Marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Kevin Kern, "Being recognized by Brandy Keys for the fifth straight year is a great accomplishment and one that we value highly given the results are based on customer feedback. We strive to ensure that customers can always count on Konica Minolta for the innovative, advanced document management solutions they need, and earning this top ranking again confirms our commitment to this goal. Our award-winning product, solution and service lines consistently prove to be among the most distinguished in our industry and we look forward to continuing this success in 2012."

Robert Passikoff, Founder and President of Brand Keys, added, "Customer expectations continue to grow, particularly when it comes to technology. To compound the difficulty tech brands face, brand reputation has become a more vital differentiator when it comes to perceived brand value, reliability, and quality. Konica Minolta has managed to keep up with both the technology and consumers for the 5th straight year, which is how they continue to have the most loyal customers in the MFP Office Copier category."

Source: PR Web - Konica Celebrates Fifth Consecutive Year as Brand Keys' #1 Brand

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Loffler Earns Sixth Consecutive Pro-Tech Service Award

Loffler Companies has just announced that it has, yet again, been awarded the Konica Minolta Pro-Tech Service Award for Service Excellence, making this the sixth consecutive year for the company to win. The Pro-Tech Award recognizes Loffler's award-winning service team supporting clients in Minnesota as well as Wisconsin.

According to Vice President Konica Minolta Business Solutions' Solutions Support Division James Ingrassia, "The Pro-Tech Award recognizes those elite Konica Minolta dealers able to demonstrate an exceptional commitment to customer support and satisfaction. It is a symbol of quality and assurance of professional, reliable service. Very few are able to achieve this honor, although hundreds have participated in the evaluation process, which is exhaustive. Every element of Loffler's service operation has been scrutinized and measured. Each year we raise the bar to reflect the technical advances that permeate our environment. Congratulations."

This award is exclusive to the copier industry and is intended to recognize the "best of the best". To be selected to become a member of this select group is an honor and Loffler's dedication to excellent service has not gone unnoticed. This recognition gives the client a distinctive advantage with Loffler. The client is assured that Loffler has the skills, the people and the systems to keep their equipment operating at the highest levels of productivity and quality.

In addition to that, Loffler is one of the top 15 Konica Minolta dealers in the United States and provides leadership in the Midwest with effective copier, MFP, production B&W and production color solutions. The company was recently the launch leader in introducing the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000 high-speed color digital press with quality that rivals that of an offset printer.

"Our mission is simple," says President and CEO of Loffler Companies Jim Loffler. "We want to exceed client expectations. We've worked hard over the last 25 years to earn the trust and confidence of our clients by delivering innovative technology and services solutions. We are proud of our people and the service organization led by Joel Nelson, to win this prestigious award for the sixth year in a row."

Loffler was also recognized as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the country by Inc. 500 Magazine for the fourth straight year. In addition to the Konica Minolta line, Loffler also provides integrated office technology and services partnered with leading brands like Canon, HP, Toshiba, Microsoft, NEC and ShoreTel. The company's offerings include multifunctional copiers, printers, managed print services, IP telephone systems, IT managed services, document management, dictation, call recorders and on-site managed FM services.

Source: Market Watch - Konica Minolta Honors Loffler Companies With The 2012 Pro-Tech Service Award for Service Excellence

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Konica Minolta Releases bizhub 25 Monochrome MFP

Konica Minolta has just recently announced the availability of the bizhub 25 Monochrome Multifunctional Product. This device, which offers full color scanning as well as a compact design, is perfect for small businesses and workgroups that require fast and efficient document management services from the convenience of a desktop.

The bizhub 25 Monochrome MFP gives you print and copy speeds of up to 25 pages per minute, an 80-sheet Automatic Document Feeder, standard automatic duplexing and enhanced security features. In addition to that, this device has exceptional paper handling, inclusive of a 500-sheet standard paper tray, a 50-sheet bypass tray and an optional cassette, allowing the bizhub 35 to have an overall capacity of up to 1,050 sheets.

Konica Minolta's newest monochrome MFP also offers color scanning at up to 600 x 600 dpi with enhanced features such as DirectScan which allows you to scan into a PC folder. In addition to that, this newest device also features a standalone 33.6 Kbps Super G3 fax capability with 2,000 one-touch dials which also allows for as many as 200 groups.

According to Senior Vice President of Marketing and Konica Minolta Kevin Kern, "The customer-driven bizhub 25 offers busy workgroups the productivity and flexibility they need from their desktop MFP, in a more cost-efficient and streamlined document management solution. Delivering fast, high-quality monochrome output with a variety of other enhanced features, the bizhub 25 ensures that customers can continue to count on Konica Minolta for hard-working digital printing solutions that meet the entire spectrum of business needs, without compromising cost or convenience."

The bizhub 25 also features an intuitive 5.8" touchscreen UI that will guide you through programming the device and job execution. The new "My MFP" feature also allows you to register and access common features from a single screen. In addition to that, this device also gives you more ways to protect your documents and devices with password login, secure fax reception and secure printing. There is also auto fax outing to secure PC folders.

The bizhub 25 Monochrome Multifunctional Product is available now through Konica Minolta direct sales, authorized dealers and value-added reseller channels for $2,500.

Source: Buyers Lab - Konica Minolta Launches bizhub 25 Monochrome A4 MFP

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Konica Minolta's magicolor 4750

Konica Minolta announced today the new availability of the magicolor 4750 Series of color printers, the smallest A4 color printers in their class. The 4750 series can print 31 pages per minute in color and black and white and can also deliver a first page in less than 12.9 seconds. The 4750 series can also produce up to 120,000 pages every month which is perfect for workgroups that rely on high quality performance.

The magicolor 4750 series includes the magicolor 4750EN as well as the magicolor 4750DN which adds the productive convenience of duplexing. Konica Minolta has decreased the overall printer size by more than 30% from previous models and has simultaneously minimized their impact on the environment by delivering printers with significantly fewer parts. The magicolor can seamlessly fit into any workgroup due to its 13" high size.

According to Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Konica Minolta, "For high definition color the magicolor 4750 Series will make a significant impact on office workgroups and bring further value by offering unmatched compact size that is convenient for work environments of all sizes. These newest additions to our A4 color line-up raise the bar for performance as cost-effective solutions that ensure customers can always count on Konica Minolta to meet their full range of digital imaging needs."

Despite being small, the 4750 series doesn't sacrifice print quality or speed and features the exclusive Emperon Print System with an 800 MHz processor that powers image processing for faster results. The calibration system enhances prints by automatically calibrating the print engine for optimal color quality. All in all this looks to be one of the best small workgroup printer series.

The magicolor 3750 series is available now through Konica Minolta's North American direct sales, authorized dealer and value-added reseller channels for a price of $699.99 for the magicolor 4750EN and $839.99 for the magicolor 4750DN.

Source: Office Product News

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New Universal Printer Drive From Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta is one of the leading providers of advanced imaging and networking technologies for desktops and print shops and they have just announced of their newest product, the Konica Minolta Universal Print Driver (UPD). The UPD is a single printer drive for all networked printers. The UPD offers a common interface which handles printer selection throughout and entire network, automatically detects and identifies Konica Minolta printers and MFPs as well as other company's products. The UPD also offers a full range of functionality which increases overall business efficiency.

Konica Minolta's UPD has a single user interface which offers multiple benefits for IT Administrators as well as users that work in anything from small to large workgroups. With this UPD there is no need for the installation of separate drivers for each networked device. The UPD simplifies all the complex capabilities by considering each and every integrated task into one single driver core. This device also allows operators to add new devices to current configurations easily so they can be up and running quickly with no loss of productivity. In addition to all of that, the user interface also offers complete functionality which includes finishing, layout and quality for every pre-installed devices.

According to Vice President of Marketing for Konica Minolta Kevin Kern, "By implementing our Universal Print Driver, IT professionals can significantly reduce administration time and costs while concurrently streamlining their printing operations." Kern goes on to say, "As businesses continue to look for ways to remain competitive, the ability to manage growing workloads in less time, while not compromising quality or efficiency, is a key concern and one that this solution directly aims to address. Konica Minolta's new UPD further evidences efforts to ensure that users can always count on Konica Minolta to deliver the cutting edge innovation they need.

Konica Minolta's UPD combines multiple print drivers to meet the needs of networks comprised of new and legacy devices from numerous manufacturers. Individual Child Drivers will connect to model-specific MPFs from Konica Minolta and Common Child Drivers will connect to other models from Konica Minolta as well as 3rd party devices. More recent MPFs and desktop printers from Konica Minolta will enjoy full print functionality while older ones will also have a basic range of functionality. Every device also has automatic detection and identification.

What s special about this UPD is that it is the only printer driver to feature a specific search filter which enables the user to search by feature set. Printing attributes like color, letter sized or 11" x 17" paper and duplex printing can be typed into the search field at which point the filter will display all devices that match. If you are looking for a quality UPD, then you should check this one out from Konica Minolta. No release date or price has been set.

Source: Office Product News