Office printing trends in the digital era

Electronic document management, cloud services and other delights of the coming digital era are trying, but they still can’t completely kill the traditional print on paper. Moreover, it’s not even about core tasks, like making leaflets, banners, production drawings, and even banal photos for a family album. Printers pull on themselves a standard office routine, due to inertia of thinking and conservatism of the organization of business processes, which has not yet been completely transferred to the digital space. So we will talk about the most current trends in the printing world, which will determine the appearance of the market in the coming years.

Based on the article readitquik.com

1. The conflict of generations.

Millennials , they are also “generation Y”, who have led children to the birth of the information age, who are much more enthusiastic in accepting high-tech innovations and successfully applying them for organizing and running a business. Another thing is that people from the generation of their parents are still in the leadership positions of companies and enterprises. People who are less adapted to the use of gadgets, and, for the most part, prefer more simple and understandable things. For example, paper media.

It is difficult to say how long the hegemony of printers in office spaces will last, but the next 10-20 years is definitely not in danger.

2. Multifunction devices are more popular than printers.

According to reports, sales of multifunction printers are seriously superior to sales of standard printers. However, there is nothing surprising here: copying machines, scanners and fax machines in offices may be more in demand than monofunctional printing devices. It is easier and cheaper to put one multitasking unit in the office than to spray on several. The tendency is felt by all large manufacturers of printing equipment, therefore “clean” printers make up a small share in their current assortment. It concerns, however, namely office machines. Professional photo printers with 8 or more cartridges do not need such bells and whistles.

3. Inkjet printers press laser.

Printing devices that use laser technology still dominate the office equipment market, which is caused not only by the speed of work, but also by its cheapness. Savings consist of low cost and purchase, and ownership (refilling cartridges with compatible toner costs a penny), and repair. However, the strujniki gradually begin to catch up and in some ways even be ahead of their fellows. HP PageWide line actively competes with lasers for speed and, moreover, allows you to print in color.
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It should be understood that in the competition of ink and toner in the field of color printing, the latter is more likely to lose. Laser devices with 4 cartridges are significantly more expensive, especially with high resolution. And the use of alternative consumables reduces the cost of inkjet printing enough to put this comparison point out of the brackets. The lack of ink is fast drying and a limited shelf life, although with proper workload of an office printer, you can forget about this problem. Another disadvantage is the complexity of repair and maintenance of inkjet technology, the high cost of components (including print heads).

Due to the constant expansion of the list of competitive advantages, the ratio of types of devices on the market is gradually changing. According to IDC marketing research, as of 2016, the share of office buildings is 8%, but by 2020 it should increase to 15%.

4. Popularization of A3 format.

The A3 format was not very popular among manufacturers and buyers of printing equipment. For household and office needs, most were enough models designed for familiar A4, and devices of formats from A2 and more were in the category of expensive professional plotters for engineers and designers. The intermediate format for a long time could not find its niche and interested buyer, but today the situation is gradually changing.

According to IDC reports, the global sales of A3 devices for 2016 amounted to 55 billion dollars in terms of money. Obeying market trends, Xerox alone released in March 2017 a dozen new devices of this format.

5. Popularization of MPS (Managed Print Services).

Printing is a tangible cost item for any business, from small to trans-national. But the more people in the staff, the more difficult it is to control such a routine process: stop unauthorized use, monitor the smooth operation, track equipment depreciation. Managed printing services, or MPS, came to the rescue of business.

MPS, in a broad sense, is full-fledged outsourcing in the printer market. The third-party company assumes all concerns related to the organization of the printing process: equipment rental, control of consumables, optimization of the fleet of devices to improve staff efficiency. The business owner, in turn, pays either a monthly fee or the amount determined by the product of the number of prints for a specified period of time and a fixed “page cost”.

In the same Europe, the popularity of MPS services is growing rapidly. From 2009 to 2016, the share of MPS in the total turnover of the printing market increased from 17% to 41%.

Providers MPS are trying to expand the scope of activities. Konica Minolta presented in 2011 the solution All Covered - IT-outsourcing, which includes services for information security and cloud storage.

6. Safety First

Corporate information security includes protection against digital copying of sensitive data. But what to do with protection against its physical copying? And how to deal with not targeted use of the park of printing equipment? The trend towards the increasing complexity of device protection systems can be traced to all major printer manufacturers. For business machines, the options for printing according to an individual password or personal ID-card of an employee have long been offered.

7. Major mergers

In a serious competitive struggle, market giants are forced to absorb weakening competitors. For example, recently, a division of Samsung, which is responsible for printing technology, was bought by Hewlett-Packard for $ 1.05 billion.

The American company Lexmark has sold all its patents for inkjet printing devices of the Japanese Funai, which later launched its own production in collaboration with Kodak. Lexmark, by the way, existed for some time in free swimming, releasing lasers, but then was completely bought out by Chinese Apex - the largest Chinese manufacturer of non-original chips for printer cartridges.