Turbo-Charged Inkjet Technology on the Horizon

Almost exactly two years ago I had a post on the Memjet technology.  It seemed that this technology had promise, but the road from prototype to production is often a longer than marketers and consumers would like.   At the CES show they are demonstrating technology for the office market and make claims that products will be available in mid 2009.  Memjet representatives have been sighted at wide-format tradeshows as well including the IRgA trade shows.  Below is a video of the Memjet technology being demonstrated at the 2009 CES show.

Comments

[ME]

Ummm .... he said will be in production mid 2009 and on the shelf AROUND the end of 2009. That means YOU WON'T SEE a MEMJET THIS YEAR!

[Joel Salus]

I read somewhere, a while back (perhaps as long ago as 18 months) that a France-based photo-kiosk equipment development company had entered into an agreement with MemJet to develop (or maybe it was to test for development) photo-kiosk equipment that uses MemJet technology. But, recent visits to that French company's web-site have not revealed anything further, at least not so far. I keep wondering what that means .... could it be that MemJet can't be developed into commercially viable equipment? The most impressive thing about MemJet is not the 60 ppm print speed (letter size print speed), but the comments that MemJet folks have made that the equipment might sell for around $500. (Riso printers can already print 120 ppm in color, but Riso printers are way more expensive than $500. MemJet has said, over and over, that MemJet itself has no intention of manufacturing ANY equipment. MemJet's business plan is to license its technology to imaging equipment manufacturers. Could it be that MemJet will never come to market? If it does, it would upset HP's applecart, I would think. So, why would HP, for one, want to license MemJet technology. Perhaps Dell would? So, reprographer community will continue to wait and see, wait and see, wait and see.