Friday, December 4, 2009

Erasable Paper from Xerox. Is the perfect for present customers the enemy of the good enough for huge new markets?

Erasable Paper was announced sometime in 2006. It seems to some like a very long time ago. My guess is that in corporate time it was the day before yesterday.

No doubt it makes "good sense" when viewed from the corporate offices, it needs market research, focus groups and feedback from the channels. Perhaps that is crux of the GUI, Postcript, and Ethernet problem that the awesome engineers at Xerox Research continue to face.

What if a separate business unit were established to bring it to market tomorrow. Will it put stress on legacy business? Yes. Will the purchase of ACS and setting up EPS put stress on present business? Yes.

Clay Christensen has detailed the real problems and real solutions for a global bringing disruptive innovations to market. I have to wonder if the Board and Managers at the mother ship have taken the time to read his stuff.

Metro - Go, go (green) gadgets!:
Published 01:30, December the 3rd, 2009

Bill McKee, of Xerox Canada talks about the erasable paper his company is developing.

How much can we save?
Estimates [say] more than 30 percent of printed office documents will be discarded right after being read.

What is the next step?
The team created a reusable paper that self-erased in about 16 to 24 hours. Customers wanted images to last for more than 24 hours. So, the team currently is working on a second version where images last 3 to 5 days."

5 comments:

  1. I'd read about this a few weeks ago but had assumed it was still in planning.

    Honestly, I'm not sure if it's genius or lunacy. Even in an office, it's asking a lot of someone to keep hold of a sheet of paper for reuse. We're far too used to thinking it a disposable resource.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The thing is that some very large organizations are looking very carefully at the amount of money they are spending on paper. Recently a part of the Dept of Defense in the States recreed that people had to use both sides of the sheet for copies.

    The other reality is that many emails are printed out to be easily read. I think I could see that each employee gets 200 sheets to keep at their printer, outputs the communication, then uses it again for the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's apt that you use the term 'decreed,' I think. It sounds despotic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As with many mandates that come from tops of organizations...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think erasable paper is a really good idea, but I am curious as to how they will integrate that with their new fifth toner cartridge, or "Clear Toner". The Clear Toner will be used for watermarks, glossy effects, etc. My question is will the new devices be compatible with erasable paper?

    ReplyDelete