Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
Rumours about Toshiba Tec’s Impending Sale Nipped in the Bud
In the middle of last year, July 2015, the world of technology was rocked by the resignation of Toshiba’s CEO, Hisao Tanaka. Even more shocking than the resignation was the revelation by Tanaka that he knew about the artificial profit inflation that Toshiba had done earlier.
The artificial profit inflation scandal itself was major news regarding Toshiba coming out just before Tanaka’s resignation. As per major news publications the world over, Toshiba was known to have inflated its profits artificially in its financial reports by a massive sum of around $1.2 billion. According to estimates, the profit reporting scandal caused the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to lose a sum of around $738 million. The accounting scandal also resulted in Toshiba suing its former executives for a sum of $2.4 million.
The reason why this old news is important is that it gave rise to a rumour last month reported by Japan Times. The rumour was that Toshiba was going to restructure its entire setup so as to avoid similar faux pas in the future. The massive restructuring rumoured at the time was expected to result in “thousands of job cuts” from the company on a global scale. These rumours of impending restructure at the heart of Toshiba’s operations also focused on the OEM’s American subsidiary Toshiba Tec, which was expected to be sold off.
Toshiba Tec is Toshiba’s office equipment subsidiary that is known for manufacturing information terminals for retail stores. Toshiba has majority ownership of Toshiba Tec since it possesses 52.8 percent of the company’s shares. Toshiba Tec has not been doing well and posted a significant loss in the first half of the 2015 fiscal. Toshiba Tec’s losses were said to be because of the sluggish performance of its point of sale systems. The idea, supposedly, was for Toshiba to sell its majority holdings in Toshiba Tec and focus on its other more profitable divisions.
However, the news has now come out that Toshiba Tec is going to evade the axe. The news was revealed by Industry Analysts Inc. According to this report, the Chief Marketing Executive of Toshiba America Business Solutions, Bill Melo, categorically denied that either they or their parent company, Toshiba Tec, face the axe. According to Melo, Toshiba Tec is a public listed company that operates independently even though Toshiba controls majority shareholding of the company. He also specified that Toshiba is still supporting Toshiba Tec and that any job cuts would occur in Toshiba’s consumer electronics and appliances along with semiconductor divisions as opposed to Toshiba Tec. This would be good news for the employees of Toshiba Tec and its subsidiaries who cumulatively amount to approximately 20,000 individuals.
The restructuring that Toshiba was supposedly about to undergo was going to be critical to its future as the OEM was said to be planning to restructure its “television, personal computer, and white goods” businesses. This involved downsizing its Ome complex in Tokyo, sale of an Indonesian television manufacturing plant as well as the sale of an Indonesian washing machine manufacturing plant. The company, apparently, is now focusing on offering business to business solutions largely because consumer electronics business has been suffering in general.
Wide Format SureColor SC-S Series Printers Introduced By Epson
Epson is one of the most popular OEMs in the market today and the reason for this is that they’re always launching new series of printers aimed at specifically targeted markets. In the second half of the last year, Epson has been very busy launching new series of printers in a bid to cater to highly specific demands from various industries. We’ve been reporting on those launches as well.
For instance, last major launch from Epson came in the form of four WorkForce Pro printers which were WF – 5111, WF – 5621, WF – 6091, and WF – R8591. More importantly, Epson has also launched a number of SureColor series of printers aimed at different industries. In October, 2015, the OEM launched four wide format SureColor SC Series printer models which were SureColor SC – P6000, the SureColor SC – P8000, the SureColor SC – P7000, and the SureColor SC – P9000. This launch had followed a September, 2015 introduction of three SureColor F Series Dye Sublimation printers in the form of the F6200, the F7200, and the F9200.
Now, Epson has decided to expand its SureColor Series of printers further by introducing the SC-S series. There are three printer models in the SureColor SC-S series of printers which are the Surecolor SC – S80600, the Surecolor SC – S60600, and the Surecolor SC – S40600. The entire Surecolor SC-S series is aimed at the signage and display graphics market boasting of printer that can handle 64 inches wide media. According to Epson, each of these printers is designed to deliver “increased quality, productivity, and durability and lower running costs”.
With regard to the signage and display graphics market, the SureColor SC-S series printers are especially designed to deliver high levels of energy efficiency while producing fast drying prints that are abrasion resistant. Furthermore, according to the OEM, prints from the SureColor SC-S series of printers can withstand outdoor use without lamination for up to three years.
The difference between various models in the SureColor SC-S series is mainly the number of colours offered. The entry level SureColor SC – S40600 offers four colours CMYK, the mid – level SureColor SC – S60600 offers eight colours CMYK, and the top end SureColor SC – S80600 offers 10 colours which include CMYK, light cyan, light magenta, light black, red, white, and metallic silver.
Print speed of each of the models in the SureColor SC-S series is also different. The SC – S40600 is capable of 58.4 square metres per hour while the SC – S60600 and the SC – S80600 can produce single pass prints at around 95 square metres per hour. It is also worth noting that the mid – level and top end models of the newly launched SureColor SC-S series are blessed with dual Precision Core TFP print heads. The output of each of these three devices is 1440 x 1440 dpi.
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