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Konica Minolta celebrates number 1 position in Europe for full colour systems In 1990, K onica M ino l ta la u n ch e d i ts f irs t c o lo u r copier. S ince th e n , Konica M in o l ta h a s led th e w ay in b u s in e s s im ag ing th ro u g h i t s g r o u n d b re a k in g co lo u r technology. In 2005 Konica M in o l ta in t ro d u c e d aw a rd w in n in g m u l t i fu n c t io n a l co lo u r devices, th e b iz h u b C 250, th e b iz h u b C 450 an d th e p r o d u c t io n sy s tem b iz h u b PRO C 500, h e lp in g th e com p any to achieve th e E u ro p e an n um b e r one p o s i t io n in full co lo u r .1 F o r Konica M in o l ta ’s p r o d u c t io n p r in t in g sy s tem s 2005 w a s a lso a v e ry su c ce ssfu l year. T he b iz h u b PRO 1050 w h ic h is availab le in 13 co n f ig u ra t io n s n o t only k ic ked o u t com p e t i to r s , b u t a lso w on th e “M ost O u ts ta n d in g M u l t ifu n c t io n a l Im aging S y s tem o f th e Year” aw a rd from Buyers L aboratory.2

Konica Minolta is now celebrating the sixteen year anniversary of its first full colour copier-printer. 1990 saw Konica Minolta become the first vendor in Europe for colour electrographic copying system with the launch of the CF70. Since then Konica Minolta has been leading the way in colour and continues to be number one in full colour copying/printing in Europe. Key successes for Konica Minolta in Europe include overtaking the nearest competitor by nearly 10% to take the number one spot for colour copiers in Europe, with 37.8% of the market. Building on its most successful year in Europe yet, tough new targets have been set for 2006 which will see Konica Minolta consolidate and strengthen its position. The aggressive new world-wide strategy will be underpinned by major investment in a larger sales force and new improved production facilities. The overall global sales force will be increased by 2,400 over the next four years while a production plant is currently being constructed in China which will have the capacity to produce more than 300,000 copiers and printers a year.

Mark Oldfield, Konica Minolta area sales manager for the Middle East & Africa, plans to replicate the success the company has seen in Europe this year in the Middle East and African countries. “To do this, it’s not enough to just have an excellent colour product range. You need a professional organisation in each country which can support and consult with customers throughout the buying process to find the most suitable solution for their

Mark Oldfield business with the lowest TotalCost of A rea Sales M anager Ownership (TCO)." Konica Minolta Business Solution’s flagship product range is the bizhub series, digital multi-functional peripherals (MFPs) equipped with generous feature sets (copying, printing, faxing, scanning). The bizhub devices can integrate into any corporate network and allow businesses to consolidate all of their digital imaging equipment. The bizhub concept enables users to adopt flexible work styles, freeing them from place and time constraints. Their colour output boasts the highest image quality and speed in the industry and leads the office equipment market where the boundary between colour and monochrome products is blurring. Among the 16 new MFPs launched by Konica Minolta in 2005, is the bizhub C250. It is four machines in one but with a foot print of just V2 a square meter. It saves time and money and less work space is needed. The bizhub C250 prints high quality colour and black and white documents at speeds of up to 25 sheets per minute.

The bizhub C250, along with the other colour devices in the bizhub range, reproduces colour images in the same high quality and sharpness of text thanks to Konica Minolta’s unique polymerised toner, Simitri®. Consumption of Simitri is significantly lower than conventional toner so savings can be made by replacing consumables less frequently. The result is that businesses looking to move away from black and white can now do so without compromising quality or raising operating costs. As well as producing industry-leading office MFPs for the mid-volume user Konica Minolta has launched the award winning bizhub PRO 1050. This system can print 105 sheets per minute and is robust enough to handle heavy print loads of up to 1.5 million sheets per month and has a huge range of finishing options. These features make it ideally suited for commercial print, CRD and print-for-pay environments. Among the many accolades received by Konica Minolta the bizhub PRO 1050 received three industry awards. It was named ‘Pick of the Year’ in the “Segment 6 Multifunction Imaging Systems” category and “Most Outstanding Multifunctional Imaging System of the Year” by the Buyers Laboratory2 and also won BERTlh3 Best award for 2005 in the “Best Mid-Volume 100 to 120 ppm” category. Its new sister device, bizhub PRO C6500e for colour production printing, supports the same extensive finishing options and is available from 2nd October 2 0 0 6 on. It has an output capacity of up to 65 pages per minute in both full colour and black and white and is expected to become as successful as the bizhub PRO 1050.

1 infoSource: infoSource 2005 Report, pho to copy industry, co lo u r copier p lacem ents, based on un i ts , based on figures of 17 WE countries. infoSource S.A., established in 1985, is a Swissbased, privately ow ned Market Research organisation c o n ductin g research in 32 countries worldwide. 2 For over 4 0 years Buyers Laboratory has been th e leading in d ep en d en t office equ ipm en t test lab a nd business a nd business consum e r advocate, www.buyerslab.com 3 BERTL® Inc. is th e prem ier source for objective, in d ep en d en t product-evaluation rep o r ts and com parative analyses o n digital im aging devices a nd software, www.bertl.com