Panasonic/Matsushita provided the rumor mill even more reason to suggest that Panasonic may get out of the copier market all together.
Rueters reports Panasonic Corp (6752.T) will report a consolidated net loss after tax of about 350 billion yen ($3.89 billion) in fiscal 2008/09 due to restructuring charges and weak sales of consumer electronics.
This will be Panasonic's first loss in six years, and the biggest since the firm posted a 430 billion yen net loss for the business year that ended in March 2002.
Interestingly, at last week's 2009 Lyra Symposium, Panasonic did not make the roster of copier companies analyzed.It is not known how much the copier side of Panasonic contributed to the loss.
I hear that Panasonic is moving towards a distribution model with its copier products - including scanners, printers and the panaboards. In any case most of their products are severly dated.
ReplyDeleteThe b/w copiers do not have any web interface monitor, cheap plastic construction on critical parts and in general poor engineering. For example, the panel will indicate an empty staple cartridge, however when you check the cartridge, there are still 20 staple pins there. However you have to change the cartridge or you are left blinking as to why am I getting the error!!
Another example - as soon as the waste toner container is full, the unit fully stops - no warnings beforehand and no easy way to temporarily "empty" a waster toner container.
Half baked and add limited line-up of products, it certainly seemed to be a confused effort.
Consider this - they re-brand the Toshiba 72 and 85 page per minute copiers - which is funny especially considering that even Toshiba does not sell their own 72 and 85 product and instead re-brands Ricoh's 90 and 105's as their high end offering!!
This individual knows little about the industry as Toshiba did sell the e-Studio720 and 850 which is their own 72ppm and 85ppm device along with Ricoh's devices. Not sure why they think other wise.
ReplyDelete