Memjet: an enticing development, but where will it fit?

Implications: In a rare reversal of roles for the market leader and established players, an upstart company's new technology confirms the new HP introduction and exposes the weaknesses of other manufacturers, especially in the inkjet space.  But the full impact of the Memjet product is unclear, until the final product definition and positioning are finalized.  Fast and cheap will not be enough in many cases, and it will be important to keep an eye of the company's eventual product line depth and breadth, as well as the final path to market.

Analysis:

Over the past months, several reporters and industry analysts have enthused about the Memjet technology, though also correctly noting the barriers to a startup's ability to commercialized the concepts.

The emergence of the US company, headed by an industry veteran, provides a somewhat clearer picture of what may happen next and also points to some of the further prospective developments.  Here a few topics areas to consider:

1)  The US company:  this step was absolutely essential to complete, even if the goal is not to produce these products independent of other players.  But even in an OEM / partnership scenario, which is a wise move given Silverbrook's distant location, lack of manufacturing background and the typical market dynamics, that "local" presence, with Bill McGlynn heading the operation, lends considerably more credibility to the project, which otherwise has (correctly) been the subject of market scepticism.  Wise move, even if it is just a first step.

2)  Vendor implications:  the stated goal of Memjet is to partner into one or several OEM relationships, combining their technology strengths and intellectual property with somebody else's manufacturing and marketing power.  Since HP has already developed their Edgeline technology in parallel, they are presumably not all that interested in discussions, unless they would consider purchasing the portfolio for the purpose of keeping it out of competitive hands and essentially monopolizing that entire technology category (a not totally unreasonable scenario).  Any other competitor must be interested in pursuing discussions with Memjet, as they will feel very exposed in the gap between the market leader and the ambitious upstart.  Within the community of established inkjet vendors there may, however, be considerable resistance to a technology "not invented here" (for some reason Lexmark springs to mind), so the management in those companies must exercise thorough due diligence and perform an objective audit of their capabilities to continue to develop and complete without such a partnership.  Beyond that short list, the best candidates may actually be other companies who are interested in entering the lucrative printer market with such a partnership to jump-start their activities and product portfolio.

3)  Product issues:  the product itself is fascinating, and everybody who has seen it in person has been amazed.  But there are a number of workaday practical issues which must be addressed and resolved as well.  In addition to the questions already raised in this and other articles regarding product commercialization, I would like to add three points to consider.
•  Array stability - the full-page array of 70,000 inkjet nozzles offers reliability in one sense, since they are all fixed and there is no motor moving the print head back and forth.  But on the other hand, those 70,000 nozzles must be so tightly normed that there is not the least variance between them, neither in there positioning, nor their ink drop size, nor their tendency to clog, spit, or whatever.  Take the simple example that one nozzle is clogged and delivers no ink.  That defect will produce a white stripe all the way down the paper.  Movable inkjet print heads actually have algorithms and systems to compensate for such a defect, but this fixed-head configuration will expose and amplify any such deficiencies in the nozzle design or ink formulation.  Any product based on this technology (this goes for Edgeline as well) must be inspected very closely for signs of telltale stripes or image "banding."
•  Beyond speed - while the print speed itself is breathtaking, the real product must deliver much more.  On the most practical level, if I am printing 60 pages a minute, I go through 600 pages in 10 minutes or 3600 pages in an hour.  Unless I am a low-volume consumer who just prints a few pages (obviously limiting the benefits of a fast printer), then I need to consider which paper-handling features are going to be required so that I do not require a fulltime paper re-filler.  For those more serious users, several product options such as large-capacity paper trays, output bins and finishing equipment will be necessary to develop useful applications.  So as wonderful as the small unit may appear, that size will increase considerably as the complete system grows into a real-life installation.  Also, we will have to consider service issues.  Regardless of the technology, printing is a very mechanical and essentially dirty process.  Moving paper and putting down ink or toner results in mechanical wear and tear, and residual ink/toner and paper dust must be cleaned to ensure proper operation.  So the system, especially a higher-volume version, must also be designed for servicability.
•  Product range considerations - as almost anybody in the industry (vendors and users) knows, one product is no product, unless you are chasing only a very narrow slice of business.  The Memjet technology will be most powerful if / when it is developed into a complete range of models and appropriate options.  What is interesting is that current vendors' product ranges are based mostly on print speed, although that factor is really a proxy for usage patterns (applications and volumes).  Given the speed and price point of even the smallest Memjet device, it would be wise to position a product range based on other user-related features and requirements, with the speed mentioned more as a key unifying factor.  And by the way, as soon as there is a successful letter-sized Memjet model, the next obvious client expectation will be to provide a ledger-sized version, which may present further (maybe even exponential?) challenges in development and production.