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Press release

Konica Minolta bizhub C353 wins BLI Spring

2008 “Pick of the Year” award

Langenhagen, Germany, July 2008

Konica Minolta has won another coveted Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) “Pick of

the Year” award. The bizhub C353 colour multifunctional product (MFP)

passed two months of testing by BLI technicians with top marks and was

given a “highly recommended” rating. In nearly all of the categories tested the

printing solution earned a grade of “very good” or better, meriting special

mention of its reliability, its compatibility with other applications, its colour

output, its toner yield and its security features.

The Konica Minolta bizhub C353, which handles 35 pages per minute, both in colour

and black and white, proved in endurance testing to be a highly reliable office

solution with especially good printing and copying properties in both colour and

monochrome. It also has no difficulty with heavy workloads. In a durability test

involving 100,000 impressions, the colour MFP that prints, copies, faxes and scans

demonstrated its reliability. That is why the BLI recommends this MFP as an ideal

solution for small workgroups with a monthly output of up to 15,000 pages.

“We are very proud that our bizhub C353 has won the ‘Pick Award’,” said Olaf

Lorenz, General Manager International Marketing Division, Konica Minolta Business

Solutions Europe. “We are particularly pleased that the BLI made a special reference

in its assessment of the system’s comprehensive compatibility with all standard

applications and data formats as well as of its ease of use.

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The bizhub C353 also delivers printing and copying results that equal the highest

standards of quality and productivity. The BLI technicians were not only convinced by

the sharpness of its colour prints. The output of shades in processing photographs

was also found to be above average. This result is partly due to the environmentally

friendly Simitri HD high definition polymerised toner. The test technicians found that

its high yield and the consistence of colours it achieved were further points in the

Konica Minolta MFP’s favour. Furthermore, the lower fusing temperature that is

required with the Simitri HD toner polymerised toner broadens the range of media

that can be used with this MFP.

An “excellent” rating the bizhub C353 also got for its applications compatibility,

enabled by the Emperon technology which also allows the system to process

different jobs at the same time. Furthermore, the bizhub C353 scored with its

different finishing features. The very positive test was rounded off with an “excellent”

mark for the security features, an area which is considered to be increasingly

important: “Users must be certain that the security of their confidential data is

ensured at all times,” Olaf Lorenz said. “The special mention that the BLI technicians

made of the bizhub C353’s extensive security features reconfirms our intention to do

justice to the growing requirements of modern print environments by providing

innovative solutions.”

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Press photos

The bizhub C353 by Konica Minolta is a full-colour MFP, producing 35 pages a

minute in both colour and black and white. The BLI recommends the bizhub as an

ideal solution for small workgroups with a monthly output of up to 15,000 pages.

The Konica Minolta bizhub C353 received a BLI Spring 2008 “Pick of the Year”

award. It was given a “highly recommended” rating, having passed two months of

testing with top marks.

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Yoshihito Hirano, Manager Office Group, Product Marketing Division Konica Minolta

Business Solutions Europe was happy to receive the BLI Spring 2008 “Pick of the

Year” award, which was handed over by Dean Armstrong from BLI.

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About Buyers Laboratory For more than 45 years, Buyers Laboratory has been the leading independent office equipment testing lab and business consumer advocate. In addition to publishing the industry’s most comprehensive and accurate test reports on office document imaging devices, each representing months of exhaustive hands-on testing in BLI’s US (Hackensack, NJ) and UK (Wokingham, Berks.) laboratories, the company has been the leading source for extensive databases of specifications and pricing on copiers, printers, fax machines and multifunctional products. The company’s databases cover more than 10,000 products and have a long-standing reputation for being the industry’s most trustworthy and complete source for global competitive intelligence. They are available to BLI subscribers online via the company’s bliQ competitive information service. This encyclopedic resource also provides quick and easy access to BLI’s First Look Reports, Field Test Reports, Lab Test Reports, Solutions Reports, Digital Imaging Review and Business Consumer’s Advisor newsletters and OEM library. In addition to testing office equipment for its subscribers, Buyers Laboratory provides a vast array of confidential for-hire private testing services that include document imaging device beta and pre-launch testing, performance certification testing, consumables testing (such as toner, ink and photoconductors), software and solutions assessments, and print media testing (including virgin and recycled papers). For more information, please visit www.buyerslab.com or e-mail info@buyerslab.com.

About Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH is a leading provider of image information products with subsidiaries and distributors in more than 50 countries in the EMEA region. The company places major emphasis on the document management and solution business in the office and production environment, especially in the field of colour output as well as related supplies. Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe is a subsidiary of Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With a total workforce of 21,000 employees worldwide, Konica Minolta Business Technologies gained net sales of over 4.4 billion euros in fiscal 2006/2007. Building on its strong core of optical technologies developed over many years as a printer and camera manufacturer, Konica Minolta Business Technologies aims to be a corporation offering products and services that are essential to all areas of digital imaging. www.konicaminolta.eu

Terms and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.

Product images are available at www.konicaminolta-images.com

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Contact:

Olaf Lorenz Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe Phone: +49 (0)511 7404-378 Olaf.Lorenz@konicaminolta.eu Claudia Bitzer Pleon GmbH Phone: +49 (0)711 210 99-416 KonicaMinoltaTeam@pleon.com