This Week in Imaging: COVID-19 Continues to Have Profound Effect on Office-Imaging Industry

by Kathleen Wirth · Published September 25, 2020 · Updated October 19, 2020

Much of this week’s office-imaging news continued to reflect the profound effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the office-imaging industry.

This includes Kodak’s withdrawal from drupa 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns; touchless print from Lexmark; Fujfilm’s progress with its coronavirus treatment; the Konica Minolta-Kronos partnership for return-to-work solutions; and new hardware from Epson geared for work-from-home.

Epson’s new work-from-home inkjet All-in-Ones are noteworthy because they include not just A4, but A3 units – All-in-Ones that can print on up to 13″x 19″ media. But they’re still compact and small enough to be deployed in the home. That means Epson has all of its bases covered. Only a few of its competitors, such as HP, can offer this competitive advantage when it comes to work-at-home.

Of course, when it comes to the impact of COVID-19, nothing probably beats August and July, when virtually all vendors reported sharply lower revenues for their latest quarters, due to massive office closures around the world. The exception was generally those companies with a strong A4 lineup and market presence, which includes Brother International, Epson, HP Inc., and Lexmark International, and HP, as we know, was also helped by the sharp increase in PC sales revenue.

This Week in Imaging

Fujifilm to Seek Approval for Coronavirus Treatment

HP Provides Strategy Update at Virtual ‘Reinvent – Amplify’ Conference

Out of Stock: Home Printers May Be in Short Supply

Solutions

Lexmark Adds Third-Party Data Capture, Touchless Print

New YSOFT SAFEQ 6 Ricoh Certification, Ricoh ProcessDirector Subscription Pricing

Konica Minolta Partners with Kronos for Return-to-Work Solutions

New Office Hardware

New Epson Work-from-Home Inkjets and Touchless Mobile Operation

Security

How to Keep Printers Secure at Remote Workplaces