Irvine-based Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. has released an eco-conscious commercial printer and scanner that can erase print so that a sheet of paper can be used multiple times.
“Over the last decade, we’ve really taken a concerted effort and leadership role behind the environment,” Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing Joe Contreras said during a product demo.
e-STUDIO 450 8LP, which costs $15,420, can print using traditional toner or in an erasable mode, which is pale blue in color. The latter can be erased when heated inside the machine.
“You essentially have a blank sheet of paper that can continually be reused over and over again,” Contreras said. “It’s really the first product of its type.”
Toshiba America Business, which employs 310 locally, released an earlier version in 2013 that erased toner for sensitive-document purposes but wasn’t able to reprint.
The newest product, which features custom printing options, is targeting the healthcare, financial and education sectors. The company will rely on its network of more than 250 resellers and a direct sales team for its printers and other products for business.
It’s among OC’s largest companies, with about $1 billion in annual sales, and employs over 2,800 in more than 100 U.S. offices and a toner plant in South Dakota. The unit has long served small and midsize businesses with its suite of scanners, printers, copiers and digital displays, among other products. It has about 165,000 U.S. customers.
It’s a unit of Tokyo-based Toshiba Tec, which is publicly traded on Japan’s Nikkei exchange and posts annual sales of more than $5 billion. Troubled Toshiba Corp., which is expected take a $6.3 billion charge-off related to its bankrupt U.S. nuclear business, is its primary stockholder, with just over a 50% majority stake.
Tech Cities 1.0
A new report by Chicago-based commercial brokerage and real estate data provider Cushman & Wakefield puts Orange County at No. 20 among the top 25 metro areas in the U.S. for tech.
It’s no surprise that San Jose in Silicon Valley, and San Francisco were the top two markets, according to the company’s inaugural Tech Cities 1.0 national report.
Cushman cited 14 OC-based technology companies among the Deloitte Tech 500, which tracks 100% revenue growth in the past year, for the OC ranking, as well as the region’s concentration of diverse corporations, tech-friendly commercial properties, quality of life, higher education programs and fertile startups scene.
OC was sandwiched between No. 19, Columbus, Ohio, and No. 21, Dallas/Fort Worth.
The top 25 tech cities were determined by analyzing several factors, including talent, capital and growth opportunity.
The report, however, relied on some outdated information, including listing Broadcom, Emulex and Western Digital as locally headquartered, and referred to Blizzard Entertainment, which assumed that name in 1994, as a recent startup.
Bits & Pieces
Santa Ana-based nonprofit Science@OC, whose mission is to strengthen public school education, received an $11,500 grant from IBM earmarked to provide teachers with professional development in Project Based Learning, in which students are challenged with projects that develop problem-solving skills. It’s the third straight year IBM has provided funding to support Science@OC. … Aliso Viejo-based Smith Micro Software Inc. picked up a design win with Kona S. The South Korean company will integrate Smith Micro’s automated firmware update offering into its device management system, which should reduce internet traffic in updating large networks of Internet of Things devices.
