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Sarah Falson

Brother Network Multi-Function Centre For SMBs

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A new multi-function printer from Brother claims to offer the perfect balance of network connectivity and ease-of-use for small and medium-sized businesses, delivering professional results for time-poor workers.

The new MFC-9840CDW (RRP $1,799) offers “superior quality” printing, faxing, copying and scanning with wireless connectivity allowing users to send their documents to the printer without the need for cables, according to Brother.

The model, which Brother calls a Multi-Function Centre (MFC), can either be installed on a wired network for multiple users to take advantage of, or it can be connected to a single PC via USB.

Also via USB, users can print PDF or JPEG files directly from a USB device without the need for a connected PC, as well as scan and save documents from the MFC onto the USB. There is also the functionality to print photos directly from a memory card taken from a digital camera, using PictBridge software.

“Giving users multiple networking options allows them to select a printer that will adapt and grow with the changing needs of the business including its size and whether they require wired and wireless communication.  More importantly, Brother has set a price point for this colour laser MFC that is extremely competitive and affordable without compromising on quality,” said Brother general manager for customer service and marketing, Gabriel Hamid, in a press release.

The Brother MFC-9840CDW prints at 20 ppm (pages per minute) in both colour and mono with a copy speed of 16cpm colour/mono.

Yahoo!7 Director Joins Engin

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Engin has appointed outgoing Yahoo!7 director, Ian Smith, to its board of directors alongside a raft of members with technology and communications backgrounds.

From today Smith will join Neil Gamble, Bruce McWilliam, Ryan Stokes and Rohan Lund as a non-executive member of the board. He brings with him over 20 years of experience in advertising, along with important posts at other high profile media and communications companies including Bates Worldwide.

“We are very pleased to have Ian join the board of Engin, his all round experience, particularly in the marketing application and insight into the competitive and fast moving world of communications, entertainment and information, will be a huge asset to the company and aid us in our plans for future growth,” said Engin executive chairman, Neil Gamble.

Smith said he is looking forward to working at a “young and vibrant” company.

 

“[Engin’s] affiliation with Channel Seven and future plans to introduce Naked DSL and TiVo to the Australian market promises to make the company one to watch over the next year. I am proud to have been asked to join the board of directors and look forward to working with the board to help guide the company through this period of growth and development,” he said.

Engin is still searching for a new CEO following the cancellation of a US replacement for Illka Tales, Max Alexander, who declined the offer of employment due to “personal circumstances.”

Faulty Goods Hurt Panasonic's Bottom Line

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Pansonic has had a bad year according to profit results from its parent-company, Matsushita, which indicate the electronics giant was hurt badly by a massive mobile phone battery recall last month.Matsushita reported its profits for the second quarter (July to September) were down a significant 17 per cent from the same period a year ago, which is unusual given Panasonic’s toe-hold in both the plasma and digital camera sectors, both of which are going gangbusters in the worldwide market.

Market commentators are blaming the huge Nokia phone battery recall which saw the mobile phone manufacturer recall 46 million of the Matsushita-made lithium-ion batteries due to fears they may overheat and ignite, following a mystery fire breaking out in a Matsushita battery manufacturing plant in Osaka. 

The 79.29 billion yen (AUD$761 million) fall in profit could also be the result of Matsushita-made faulty parts in microwaves, refrigerators, dryers and massage products which were sold in Japan, according to a report from the Associated Press.

 

However, quarterly sales for the brand rose one per cent to 2.286 trillion yen (AUD$21.53 billion) from a year ago, due to demand for flat-panel TVs, air conditioners and digital cameras.

The company is forecasting profits of 246 billion yen (AUD$2.31 billion) for the year ending March 2008, accompanied by sales of 8.78 trillion yen (AUD$82.7 billion).

Huge 46″ Digital Signage From Mitsubishi Electic

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Mitsubishi Electric is giving retailers and commercial applications a bigger chance to gain the attention of their customers, with the company’s largest digital display ever – the 46-inch LDT461V LCD.

Designed to suit bright environments such as shopping centres and retail stores, the 1080p high definition LCD ($5,995.00) is perfect for public applications, says the company.

It can be used individually or in a tile formation to create one big image, and its picture-in-picture feature means a single display can show two images at once.

The LDT 461V also has a rapid 6ms response time so the image is fast-moving and free-of-ghosting, says Mitsubishi Electric. It features a screen saving function and a high contrast ratio of 1500:1.

 

“Digital signage is becoming an increasingly popular tool in commercial and public situations as it is a powerful way to communicate a message. However businesses don’t want a screen that has sub standard picture quality just because it’s for signage. They need a screen that is going to give the sort of picture you would want to watch the Rugby World Cup final on”, said Mitsubishi Electric director, Thomas Seeto.

The screen also includes various performance-enhancing features to preserve the screen’s life, says the company, including a power scheduling feature which enables the screen to be programmed when to switch on and off; a screen saving function which features four options to stop image retention and burn; and a built in fan which also has heat monitoring to ensure the LCD panel operates at the optimum temperature.

The inside temperature of the display can also be checked manually and you can set the fans to run automatically when a certain temperature is reached by the screen.

The screen’s viewing angle is 176 degrees both horizontally and vertically, and the tile function means that up to 25 screens can be linked at once to create a video wall displaying several different images or a single large image.

The Mitsubishi Electric LTD461V comes with a two year limited on site warranty.

Shareholders Vote, Coles Sold

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Coles Group Limited shareholders today voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of a
Scheme of Arrangement which proposed that Wesfarmers Limited would acquire the Coles Group, according to the results of a gathering of the Board and investors today in Victoria.

Subject to approval from the Supreme Court of Victoria on 9 November, Coles Group will make a further announcement after the Court has considered the matter and, if the Scheme is approved, ourt approves the Scheme, Coles Group shares will be suspended from close of trading on the ASX on the same day.

The Scheme proposed that investors would receive for each Coles Group share $4 cash, along with 0.14215 Wesfarmers’ Ordinary Shares and 0.14215 Wesfarmers’ Partially Protected Shares.

Today’s resolution that Wesfarmers should buy-out Coles was cast by 99.25 per cent of voters with 97.83 per cent of shareholders voting, either in person or by proxy.

Pioneer’s Mass Marketing Mistake

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Spotty-faced 18-year-old resellers are not the right people to sell $12,000 Pioneer plasma TVs, claims one of Australia’s leading marketing experts.

When struggling Japanese consumer electronics company, Pioneer, held a reseller get-together on Monday night to inform its valued partners that it was changing its retail technique and would now be selling its LX product range in 130 retailers including mass merchants such as Harvey Norman, representatives from boutique outlets reeled.

Not only would they lose sales to cheaper businesses with more buying power, but specialty retailers could now face decreased sales of their other high-end Pioneer products due to perceived decreased brand worth, said representatives who attended the event.

Following dramatic losses in plasma revenue over the past year, Pioneer has been forced to restructure its sales pitch numerous times to keep afloat. The latest about-face has already seen the company step on the toes of its most valued specialist retailers — businesses who stand by Pioneer’s high-end products and offer the after sales support, customer service and installation to prove it.

 

Analysing from an outside perspective Pioneer’s controversial announcement, Douglas Nicol, managing partner – direct marketing at TCG and former director of marketing giant George Patterson, told SmartHouse News that Pioneer would do better to set up dedicated, premium sales outlets to move its high-end, full-HD LX plasma.

“The Chanel boutique that we did on Castlereagh Street [in Sydney] works, and people are paying $20,000 for a piece of couture, because the experience is amazing,” he said.

The Chanel boutique operates on an appointment-only basis where customers enter waiting lists to view and purchase specially-designed products, from specially-trained sales and design staff. According to Nicol, Pioneer could still move units of its LX by working to a similar premise – where an increased number of customers will pay a premium for a product where the experience of buying it is pleasurable.

“The experience of buying in this setting can be engaging and pleasurable. High service levels for top-end cars, for example, romance the product,” said Nicol.

“If a spotty 18-year-old is selling it, you miss out on the experience.”

 

Mass Market Mess

Pioneer is in the right position to cash in on its premium reputation in the market, but for stock-moving reasons it has decided to allow almost any reseller with the floor space and merchandising capacity to sell its LX range, potentially sullying its brand name in the process, said industry expert and director of specialty AV retailer, Len Wallis Audio, Len Wallis.

“They are perfectly poised to take advantage of their position – they have a fantastic product. The opportunity is falling in their lap, but they just have to realise this,” said Wallis.

Pioneer’s decision to move its premium line-up into the box-moving market will no doubt lead to the brand selling more units, however the solution could be a short-term one, says Wallis.

“They can still get the figures if they keep out of the gutter. But if they get into the gutter like everyone else, what have they got to stand aside from everyone? Plus it costs them more to manufacture their products,” he said.

 

Nicholas Papas of boutique audio and video retailer and installer, Audio Solutions, says he understands Pioneer’s need to enter the mass market for products at the lower end, but he believes the LX range should be kept exclusive.

“It’s a complicated product. It needs installation and specialist advice. If the big boys get their hands on it, they’ll carve it up,” said Papas.

“The product will lose its exclusivity, its high-end type of appeal. We’d probably recommend that going into the mass market isn’t the best thing for Pioneer to do.”

However according to Papas, while his company is set to lose dollars due to consumers purchasing the LX range at cheaper resellers, he may make some of this back because of the one thing he offers which mass retailers don’t – specialist service. The fact that Audio Solutions makes money finishing mass retailer’s dirty work is telling of the state of the retail climate.

“We have to pick up the pieces for the mass retailers. I get five to 10 calls a week from people wanting me to install the products they purchased elsewhere. They think they’re getting a better deal buying it at a larger reseller but they’re not – mass retailers won’t give you the expertise you need, and customers end up paying us a whole lot of money to install their product, tell them how it works, and take their calls if they have a problem in the future,” he said.

Harris Scarfe In Court Today Over Dodgy Ads

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Retailer Harris Scarfe and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are in court the today over allegations that Harris Scarfe has misled consumers with its advertising.

A directions hearing takes place in front of Justice Mansfield today in the Adelaide Federal Court.

The ACCC declares that Harris Scarfe has contravened sections 52 and 53(e) of the Trade Practices Act by promoting a storewide sale which was not storewide.

In October 2006 the electronics retailer instituted a television campaign in Victoria which claimed a ‘20%-60% OFF STOREWIDE’ sale and distributed catalogues in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania to promote the sale.

According to the ACCC, the electronics retailer engaged in misleading conduct in promoting a storewide sale when it was offering neither a discount of all goods in the stores nor a minimum of 20 per cent of all goods in the stores.

Further, the ACCC also alleged that the distributed catalogues included photographic images of various products under banners stating a specific discount when some of those goods were not discounted by the percentage that appeared alongside them.  

The ACCC is therefore seeking injunctions, corrective advertising, a review and revision of Harris Scarfe’s internal business operations, and maintenance of Harris Scarfe’s compliance program along with costs.

Online Xmas Pressie Research Highest Ever

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Consumer electronics and appliances grew substantially in terms of website traffic over the Christmas period, boasting a 30 per cent rise in consumers searching for the categories online than the same period in 2006.Online retailers selling games, music, appliances, electronics and books performed the best, according to Hitwise.
Retail stores with online outlets also performed well with traffic increasing 42 percent in the lead-up to Christmas.

Stores that performed the best were Harvey Norman which nabbed 5.36 per cent of retail searches, followed by The Good Guys with 1.62 per cent, JB Hi-Fi with 1.55 per cent and Retravision with 1.45 per cent, said Hitwise.

In terms of products, mobile phones and digital cameras were the most searched-for items, with digital photo frames spiking before Christmas to three times its record the previous year.

Freshtel Masters Mobile VoIP

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Freshtel is entering a new market with roaming VoIP, which allows customers to make and receive calls over the internet using their mobile phone when within range of a WiFi hotspot.

Launching early next year, the solution will also be sold to Freshtel financier, Tesco,  and a version of the product will be finetuned for the larger UK market.

Under the agreement, Freshtel will be paid a licence fee from Tesco, further entrenching Freshtel’s converged mobile technology strategy, which the company says is the first fully-integrated internet telephony solution and is unique in the market.

“The key point of difference is that Freshtel has integrated the converged mobility solution with our White Label product allowing partners to offer a full phone service from registration to credit top-up.  This stand alone application automatically configures the mobile handset to place a call over the Freshtel network when WiFi is available, and what’s more this can be done with the convenience of the users existing mobile phone number,” said Freshtel CEO Rhonda O’Donnell.

“Users don’t need to worry about which network they’re calling on or having a separate phone number for the internet phone – it’s totally seamless.  Users can simply call as they always have and automatically receive cheaper than traditional landline rates when WiFi is available.”

The solution also allows customers to see if their contacts are online and allows them to use internet based instant messaging or SMS on the traditional network.

“The technology introduces really exciting, user-friendly features to mobile internet telephony. Our aim is to make internet telephony more accessible and desirable and to cater to the lifestyles of our customers,” said O’Donnell.

NEC Cuts LCD Monitor Range

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NEC Australia has altered the product focus within its LCD monitor business, halting distribution of its entry-level models and focusing instead on monitors that offer higher specifications for a higher retail price.

While NEC Australia can’t confirm yet which model numbers will be cut from the brand’s office line-up which also includes projectors, marketing manager Michelle Hancox told SmartHouse News that the decision was part of the company’s “new business strategy”.

The brand’s entry-level range is called ‘Value Series’, and includes AccuSync and Hanover LCD screens ranging from 17 to 22 inches.

Hancox confirmed that the new direction has nothing to do difficulty in accessing stock, since a recent LCD monitor plant burst into flames in China, ruining 16 of its 20 manufacturing lines.

The plant in question, called Lite-on, is well-known for supplying OEM monitors to NEC.