Two Vendors Take a Step
Forward on A4 – New
letter-size MFPs from Konica Minolta and Kyocera will help these vendors gain a
stronger foothold in this growing MFP market segment, but neither vendor is fully
on-board with the idea that such products should proliferate in offices. Both
companies tend to downplay the role for their new A4 models, which lag in
providing complete application support, and make little effort to link their
new MFPs to MPS.
Sharp Builds its Free
Connector Arsenal – It
remains to be seen how much traction Sharp, Toshiba, Konica Minolta, Canon or
Kyocera Mita will achieve with their SharePoint connectors and whether price is
a factor in such success, but these MFP software developments bear watching. As
the ECM market continues to consolidate, there will be fewer key applications
coming from a small number of large vendors. This will reduce to a much more
manageable number the list of connectors an MFP vendor might develop on its own.
“Seven-Year Itch” – The honeymoon for
MFP hardware vendors and software developers was barely over, and there were
already signs this wasn’t a match made in heaven. Both partners have focused on
what their spouse could do for them, instead of the other way round. Any advice
columnist will tell you that’s a warning sign. I hate to think divorce is in
the offing. It’s always the kids who suffer. Pity the poor dealer or customer.
Can this marriage be saved?
