Steve Pearl

Some copier vendors see a strong future for black-and-white copier/printers as part of a cluster printing system. T/R Systems pioneered this model, but others are now touting their own cluster solutions. Minolta's MicroPress can support up to 12 output engines that can be a combination of black-and-white and color engines. The Unified Konica Solution also links to both black-and-white and color engines, with the server routing pages to the appropriate devices. "This creates a tremendous boost in efficiency, because operators can run several jobs simultaneously, instead of completing one job before starting the next," says Kevin Kern, of Konica. "The result is much faster

With digital technology growing, will there still be a demand for analog black-and-white copiers in the future? It depends on whom you ask. • Dennis Amorosano, Canon: "Surprisingly, there is a demand for analog machines. Much of the demand is due to price. The cost of analog is significantly less. A lot of customers don't have applications that justify digital, Internet-capable machines. For black-and-white copying only, you don't need to buy into digital. Analog will be around for all of these reasons, but mainly the due to the price." • Steve Pearl, Minolta: "There's still a demand for analog black-and-white because some businesses need