Channel 0214 Office Supplies

“TIFF 2010” DEP proudly presents Thailand’s premier furniture showcase Under the concept of “Living A Green Life”

2010-02-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

The Department of Export Promotion (DEP) in collaboration with the Furniture Industry Club, the Federation of Thai Industries, and the Thai Furniture Industries Association, is organizing the Thailand International Furniture Fair 2010 (TIFF 2010), under the concept of “Living A Green Life”. This event gives business operators a chance to both exhibit their latest furniture designs and seek business partnerships. TIFF 2010 will take place during March 10th-14th, at IMPACT, Thailand.

Mrs. Srirat Rastapana, DEP Director-General, stated that, “The global concerns about climate change have driven designers around the world to originate a new concept of furniture design in order to help raise public awareness on global warming. Such a concept has become a new trend in furniture design. To capitalize on this opportunity, the DEP has planned to arrange this year’s TIFF event under the concept of “Living A Green Life”, which is in compliance with the rising global trend.

“The event will be divided into two parts. During the first three days, March 10th-12th, the event is open exclusively for trade negotiations, while in the last two days, March 13th-14th, it is open for public retailing. Apart from being a spectacular, all-inclusive showcase of Thailand’s very best furniture production capacity and design, TIFF 2010 promises to be a great platform for leading Thai furniture manufacturers, entrepreneurs, designers and operators of related businesses including spare parts, machinery and interior decor materials, to meet with potential buyers and counterparts from overseas. It’s a great chance for virtually everybody in the furniture industry to seek alliance and reach common success.” added Mrs. Srirat.

Mrs. Srirat further noted that, “TIFF 2010 is anticipated to be the most comprehensive furniture exposition ever staged in Thailand. This expectation is to encompass the various aspects of the event including the number of participating exhibitors; revolutionary furniture designs; and, the trade and business opportunities it will present to international visitors and exhibitors themselves. In addition, TIFF 2010 will pave the way for professional Thai designers to demonstrate their capabilities to the world, through collections of unique furniture designs or furniture items made from innovative, eco-friendly materials. The event is expected to welcome more than 33,000 international visitors from Japan, USA, EU, India, Middle East, Africa, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.

HP StorageWorks X9000 Network Storage Systems Family

2010-02-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

HP led by (from left to right) Mr. Ong Swee Lye, Regional Sales Manager, StorageWorks Division, HP Enterprise Business, Mr. Humprey Sy, South East Asia Business Manager StorageWorks Division, HP Enterprise Business, Mr. Wu Wen Yong, Technology Consultant – NAS, StorageWorks Division, HP Enterprise Business and Mr. Wongviwat Siritasanakul, Product Manager, StorageWorks Division, HP Enterprise Business, Hewlett-Packard (Thailand) Ltd. recently held the seminar on “HP StorageWorks 2010” to update Thai business executives and IT professionals on today’s enterprise storage trends and to introduce the new HP StorageWorks X9000 Network Storage Systems for enterprise customers.

HP StorageWorks X9000 Network Storage Systems scale-out beyond traditional network attached storage systems in both capacity and performance. Designed to be extremely scalable, flexible, and cost-efficient, HP X9000 Network Storage Systems deliver excellent performance and a modular storage infrastructure to accommodate the unprecedented amount of data today’s enterprises need to cope with. Central management allows the administrator to manage not just terabytes but multi-petabyte environments at the highest density available from HP. The pay-as-you-grow architecture and an all-inclusive feature set eliminate storage over-provisioning or expensive add-ons. The X9000 increases capacity utilization and simplifies management with a single namespace that can scale to 16 petabytes. The X9000 is the right platform for customers designing a next generation data center.
About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

Epson Technology Supports Printing Applications for iPhone and Android Phones

2010-01-30T00:45:00.001-08:00

Open-source library allows for simple development of universal driver for Epson printers

Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson", TSE: 6724) today announced global support for its open-source development kit, the ESC/P-R library, which assists product designers wishing to develop printing applications for electronic devices. With the kit, developers only need to create one driver in order to connect and communicate with any Epson inkjet printer that supports ESC/P-R.

ESC/P-R is a common language for selected Epson inkjet printers worldwide that supports every media type, paper size and associated printing mode available on those products. ESC/P-R allows many kinds of devices to connect and communicate with Epson printers, expanding possibilities for use with medical equipment, measuring equipment, electronic whiteboards, and at home with home electronics and game machines. It is especially suited for consumer electronics devices and embedded equipment.

The ESC/P-R development kit has already been utilized to develop printing applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and for phones using the Android operating system, enabling people with these devices to enjoy the outstanding image quality that Epson printers are known for. "ePrint" by Microtech Corp. and Epson's own "Epson iPrint" can be found in Apple's App Store, while CyCom Technology Corp.'s "CyPria" application is available for download from the Android Market. All of Epson's Wi-Fi capable all-in-one printers launched this year will support these applications.

The ESC/P-R language is designed to be easy to develop and maintain, as it removes the necessity to create and update separate drivers for each printer. It enables speedy printing of high quality images even from devices with a slow CPU, and does not require dedicated image processing memory. Development support will be provided by Epson Imaging Technology Center in San Jose and Seattle.

CANON ENHANCES ITS SUCCESS WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THREE NEW HIGH SPEED PRODUCTION SCANNERS

2009-11-20T23:27:00.000-08:00

Providing Reliable, Fast Scanning For High-Volume Environment Suitable for Corporate use

Canon, Leader in Digital Office Revolutionary Technology for small, medium and large sized enterprises, today unveiled 3 new high-speed production scanners suitable for large business enterprises - DR 9050C and DR 7550C capable of providing continuous high image-quality scanning; and DR 7090 C. The new models demonstrate their distinct effectiveness and variety of functions that have proved their ability in creating new business opportunities for organizations.

Capt. Soontorn Pantaramongkon, Senior Director & General Manager, Business Imaging Solutions Division, Canon Marketing (Thailand) Co., Ltd., “The current economic downturn has resulted in a slow growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMES) market while large enterprises, such as Financial institutions, Hospitals and Educational Institutes focus their investments on Information Technology, especially in digital document imaging and office solutions, enhancing their document management systems to reduce overall costs associated with document management and records retention. Canon high-speed color and black-and-white scanners achieved sales growth of up to 133.75% from the same period last year. At the end of this year, we targeted to reach 148% sales expansion in the high speed scanner segment. Canon’s unique technology allows it to reliably accommodate a wide variety of document sizes and types, such as financial reports, hard to handle documents as well as longer-than-usual electrocardiograms, thus increasing document management efficiency. All three latest scanners are equipped with up-to-date technologies that enable large enterprises to handle high volume of document storage.

Capt. Soontorn added “Regarding Canon’s marketing strategy, we have partnered with SI (System Integrator), creating business solutions software that meets with different types of enterprise under our business campaign “Business Can Be Simple” which aims to create business opportunities for organizations. Canon is proud to introduce three new high-performance scanners that are capable of handling high volume batches per day equipped with easy-to-use multi-functions. These three new high performance scanners are suitable for large corporate required high precision document handling in digital file”.
High-Speed Scanner DR 7090C
Providing high-speed and versatility scanning

High-Speed Scanner DR 7090C two-way design allows scanning flexibility of fast one-pass duplex and easy flatbed scanning, both in one compact unit. Through utilizing the image RUNNER Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) feeding tray that can stock up to 100 sheets and handle paper size of up to A3 or longer documents. In addition, the use of the flatbed also provides versatility for scanning binded books, reports and thick documents too fragile to go through the feeder. The combination of high-quality images, reliable paper handling, and excellent performance offers our customers a full range of scanning and archiving solutions.

DR 7090 C achieves rapid speeds of up to 70 pages-per-minute (ppm) in 24 bit color, grayscale or black-and-white at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi). Its dual sensors enable double-sided documents to be scanned in a single pass at a fast 88 images per minute with a scanning capacity of 6,000 sheets per day
High-performance functions and Easy-to-Use

The high-speed scanner DR 7090 C Job Key, copier-like operation, allows the operator to select up to 99 customized, predefined jobs. In addition, its has productivity-boosting image processing functions - Automatic Page Size Detection and image detection is an intelligent scanning feature which allows it to detect the size of each document, skips blank pages, corrects slanted documents and text orientation recognition. These features reduce users pre-sorting and preparation time and no need to readjust the scanned documents.
High-Speed Scanner DR 9050 C and DR 7550 C
Providing High-quality and reliability at high scanning speeds

High-Speed Scanner DR 9050 C provides fast scanning speeds of up to 90 pages-per-minute for single sided documents/ up to 180 pages-per-minute for double sided documents; while High-Speed Scanner DR 7550 C is capable of maintaining scanning speeds of up to 75 pages-per-minute for single sided documents/ up to 150 pages-per-minute for double sided documents (A4 paper/Letter, 200 dpi, portrait, black-and-white); Equipped with Onboard Image Processing Chip to ensure high scanning speeds while multiple image processing functions are selected. In addition, 3-line CMOS Image Sensor Technology provides fast scanning and exceptional color reproduction, true to the original document and free of unwanted color staining. Moreover, both of these compact scanners have a scanning capacity of 18,000 sheets per day and 15,000 sheets per day.
Capable of handling high-volume batch jobs

Motorized feed tray that stocks a maximum capacity of up to 500 sheets and Active Torque Control for adjusting roller torque to accommodate otherwise difficult-to-feed paper types, such as especially thin or thick documents.

Canon high-speed color scanners create business opportunities for enterprises. Testimonial from a well-known master of ceremonies and the owner of a Chinese language training institute ‘Han Gi’ Mr. Thankhun Jitissara – Eed, guarantees Canon’s quality while sharing his experience and success story gained from using Canon high-speed color scanner model DR2510C “People know me from my work as master of ceremonies and they have never seen me in a new role as a businessmen. Currently, I own a Chinese Language Training Institute and I oversee all the management aspects of the institute, both the working process and human resources. Right now, business is busy as there are a lot of students enrolling in the programs. Therefore, documents management is crucial, especially storing students’ personal profile and records. We have to find a way to systematically store the original documents safely as well as making it quick and easy for access when needed. Canon high-speed color scanners can truly provide the solution that meets my business requirements, by providing efficient and systematic document management”.

Mr. Thankhun added “Our training program does not rely only on text books. I often utilize other media and information from newspapers and columns in Chinese magazines. Canon Image Sensor – CIS feature provides fast and versatile scanning of these difficult to handle documents. I count on Canon high-speed color scanners in assisting me and making document management a lot easier.

SOCIALScene: B2S launch

2009-09-16T22:44:00.001-07:00

Varit Charunyanonda (4th left), marketing vice-president for B2S Co, Ltd, together with Sukchai Wijaithammarit (5th left), managing director for Jamsai Publishing Co, Ltd; Waropas Nimibutr (3rd left), sales director for Sony Music Entertainment Operating (Thailand) Co, Ltd;Rommanee Taweerat (right), general manager for Minor Corp Pcl; Wannar Buddhawongnant (left),sales manager for 3M Thailand Ltd; Treethep Palakavong Na Ayudhya (2nd right), marketing manager for Nanmeebooks Co, Ltd; Prapon Kieatsakdawong (3rd right), sales manager for Amarin Book Centre Co, Ltd; Thanida Puengcharoen (2nd left), assistant marketing and sales manager for Nation Egmont Edutainment Co, Ltd; and business alliances recently joined in the launch of 'B2S World of Learning'- offering innovative learning equipment at discount prices - at CentralWorld.

Magnificent seven

2009-09-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

       In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
       Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
       Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
       Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
       Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
       The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
       The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
       Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
       The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
       The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.

Canon to restructure stepper division

2009-08-25T01:48:00.001-07:00

       Japan's Canon Inc said it planned to restructure its loss-making microchip stepper division by December,a move aimed at helping it better compete with ASML and Nikon Corp.
       "Canon also aims to return to a trend of increasing profits each year in 2010,"Masahiro Osawa, a managing director,said in an interview yesterday.
       The company, the world's largest digital camera maker ahead of Sony Corp and Nikon and a major manufacturer of copiers and printers that competes with Xerox Corp and Ricoh Co Ltd, posted its first annual operating profit decline in nine years in 2008.
       "We have begun to see some encouraging signs here and there. We would like to make 2009 the floor for our earnings," Osawa said.
       Following Osawa's comments, shares in Canon closed up 6.3% at 3,720 yen,its high for the day and outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical ma-chinery index which gained 3.7%.
       Canon's microchip stepper division,which also manufactures LCD-making equipment and accounts for around 14%of revenue, posted an operating loss of 6.4 billion yen ($67 million) in AprilJune as chip makers reined in capital investment.
       "The chip and LCD industries are in the midst of drastic changes ... we ourselves are starting to move to transform our business structure," he said, but declined to elaborate.
       Canon trails ASML of the Netherlands and Nikon in chip steppers, multi-million dollar machines used to etch circuitry on to silicon wafers to make chips.
       Canon last month posted a 72% fall in quarterly operating profit, also hit by sluggish demand for office machines and a firmer yen, but raised its full-year forecast by 6% to reflect more aggressive restructuring steps and a stronger-thanexpected demand for high-end digital cameras.
       The restructuring moves included cutting 700 jobs at its chip-making equipment business and absorbing Canon Marketing Japan Inc's chip stepper sales and maintenance operations.
       Osawa also said Canon plans to continue development of surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) technology despite sharp falls in LCD prices,although more time will be needed for a commercial launch.
       SEDs were once seen as promising next-generation flat displays, but steep price falls in LCD and plasma panels have raised concerns over the viability of the commercially untested technology.
       "I believe SEDs have technological competitiveness. But LCD prices have fallen at a much quicker clip than we had anticipated," Owasa said."When it comes to costs and technological expertise for commercial production, we need some time to catch up."

Sluggish PC, printer ink sales hurt HP

2009-08-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

       Hewlett-Packard Cos 19% drop in quarterly profit shows that the company still relies heavily on printer ink and the troubled personal computer market, despite the aggressive transformation its undertaking to branch out and encroach more on rival IBM Corps turf.
       IBM, which ditched its PC division as part of a major facelift over the past 15 years, now makes most of its money from software and services. With its $13.9 billion acquisition last year of technology services company Electronic Data Systems, HP now too is heavily invested in services they are its biggest revenue and profit generator.
       But HPs latest quarterly numbers,reported on Tuesday after the market closed, show the companies are still very different.
       HPs profit dropped in large part due to ongoing weakness in sales of PCs and printer ink two areas IBM isnt in.Still, HP edged past Wall Streets profit and sales forecasts something CEO Mark Hurd has done most quarters in his 412years at HPs helm.Expectations were high going into Tuesdays report: HPs stock has risen 75% since March. Although the results edged out analysts estimates, investors sent shares down 96 cents, or 2.2%, to $43 in extended trading. The stock closed Tuesdays regular session up 85 cents,or 2%, at $43.96.
       The numbers were good and the guidance is a relief, said Jayson Noland,an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co Their commentary though is what I would focus on: conditions are stabilising,and some of the cyclical businesses should show a rebound next year.
       But HP offered no big surprises, ho hum, he added.I dont expect the stock to do much one way or the other.(The stock) has been very strong.
       Ink has long been HPs cash cow, but is coming under pressure from generic,cheaper brands. HPs revenue from printing supplies, which includes ink, was down 13% in the three months ended July 31.
       HPs PC division posted an 18% sales decline, despite improvement in consumer spending, strength in China, and a 2% increase in unit shipments.
       The discrepancy is explained by the fact that PC makers have been slashing prices, a trend that has also hurt HPs rivals.
       HP has been reluctant to call a bottom in the PC market, as chip maker Intel Corp did in April one of the first bullish signs about a turnaround in that sector.
       Were encouraged I think by the stability that were beginning to see in the market, but were not yet at a point where were ready to call it a turn,Hurd said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday evening.
       Cathie Lesjak, HPs chief financial officer, said in an interview that PC demand appears to have stabilised.
       She said the decline in printing supplies revenue was mostly caused by currency fluctuations and changes in the way HP manages inventory at resellers.
       HPs printer division makes up 21%of its overall revenue. The PC division makes up 31%.
       In the latest quarter, HP earned $1.64 billion, or 67 cents per share, compared with $2.03 billion, or 80 cents per share,a year earlier.
       Excluding one-time items, HP earned 91 cents per share, a penny better than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
       Sales fell 2% to $27.45 billion, slightly ahead of analysts projections for $27.26 billion. Sales would have risen 4% were it not for currency fluctuations.
       The combined HP-EDS had $8.47 billion in services revenue in the latest quarter. Its hard to compare that to last year, though, because the numbers HP has released dont compare directly yearto-year.
       HP says thats because EDS wasnt a part of HP at this time last year, and the companies are still being integrated.

KODAK TO EXPAND DIGITAL-PRINTING SERVICE, EXPECTS MARKET TO DOUBLE

2009-08-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

       Kodak (Thailand) is expanding its digital-printing service,as the market is expected to double each year.
       Managing director Preecha Prasatwattana, who assumed the position in April, yesterday said Kodak would install digital-printing kiosks in four Thailand Post brances in Bangkok next month.
       If the service proves popular, it may be expanded to other post offices.
       Kodak will also increase its picture kiosks to 550 by year-end, from 400 nationwide now. It also has 400 Kokak Express Coloru Labs.
       Digital printing now contributes half of the company's total revenue,while the rest comes from digital-camera sales.
       The digital-printing market has boomed in recent years, with people taking pictures with not only digital cameras, but also camera phones and printing them out at a kiosk or labs.
       Although the digital-camera market saw sales drop 20-25 per cent in the first seven months of the year,Kodak's first half digital-printing revenue rose 35 per cent year on year.
       "We've so far maintained our market share of 50 per cent in the digital-printing business," Preecha added.