Printing in 2010
Published August 27, 2008 at 3:39 pm · Filed under Features
PRINTIT ASKED LEADING LIGHTS IN THE PRINTER MARKET FOR THEIR THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF OFFICE PRINT
The printer industry has had a difficult nine months. According to IDC,
worldwide hardcopy unit shipments declined 18% year-on-year to 26.4
million units in the first quarter of this year, with an even greater decline in
shipment value of 21%.
This represents the third consecutive quarterly decline, with printer
sales being particularly badly hit (down by 28%). Even colour laser printer
shipments fell back by 15% after a rise of 1% in the last quarter of 2008.
The decline in printer sales is partly the result of the continuing
transition towards multifunction printers (MFPs), which declined less
steeply than other segments (-10%) and now account for 62% of the
hardcopy peripherals market.
The only part of the market to record year-on-year growth was colour
laser MFPs, with sales 6% up on Q1, 2008.
IDC expects the market to recover early in 2010 as the world comes out
of recession, but what will the market look like in a year’s time? And what
will purchasers’ priorities be? Will businesses loosen their purse strings or,
mindful of manufacturers’ green printing messages, choose to print less
and make do with fewer devices?
PRINT VOLUMES?
PrintIT’s survey of UK printer manufacturers found that while everyone
agreed hardware sales were down, there was disagreement over whether
print volumes had declined in the same period - or how they would
develop in the future.
Brother sales and marketing director Phil Jones was typical of those who
felt that ‘smart printing’ techniques were having an impact on print volumes.
“Printing on both sides of the page, Toner Save mode, booklet print mode
and using large monitors have impacted the amount people print,” he said.
“We accept there are fundamental shifts happening in technology.”
Others, like Tom Primett, group product marketing manager for Sharp,
were not so sure, pointing out that pages are printed for a reason and that
is to do business.
“You may see a reduction in print volumes in the home but in the office,
print is the price of doing business. You can do scan-to-email, but someone
will still print it out at the other end. All you are doing is moving the print
around. That is why print volumes have gone up since email,” he said.
Paul Callow, Lexmark UK marketing director, said that he had noticed
a reduction in the number of pages printed but expected print volumes to
increase as the economy improved.
“There has been a reduction in the number of pages but we are trying
to work out if that’s because there are fewer businesses or if it’s combined
with the fact that people are doing the same amount but are now printing
smarter,” he said. “As the economy recovers the fact that business will
grow again will offset the fact that people are being more responsible, so
print volumes may start to go up again.”
THE DUPLEX EFFECT
Everyone drew a distinction between physical pages printed, which is
influenced by the growing practice of two-sided printing (duplex), and the
number of impressions made, which is not.
Duplex printing may be a problem for paper merchants, but it doesn’t
affect toner sales, which is what really matters to printer vendors - and, as
Brother’s Phil Jones points out, in the short term at least it gives users of
simplex printers a good reason to upgrade their equipment.
“Our view is that if a business doesn’t have a duplex printer it will be
worth their while to buy one. Our booklet printing mode puts four sides of
A4 onto one sheet of A4: we use that all the time here because it’s really
convenient and it reduces paper consumption by 75%,” he said.
What may have more of an impact on consumable sales, argues
Samsung’s Steve Pearce, is Toner Save or draft printing mode.
“I see a change in the number of pages output - the same number
of impressions but fewer pages because of duplex. At the same time,
manufacturers are driving environmental features, such as the Toner Save
button, which will decrease toner consumption by 40% but not necessarily
affect page volumes,” he said.
HIGH-END GROWTH
Replacing a simplex printer with a duplex model is part of a wider trend
to acquire more powerful technology that Tracey Fielden, Canon UK head
of office marketing, believes will cushion lower hardware sales caused by
device consolidation.
“We might not sell as many machines, but you will find there is growth
at the high end. We will sell fewer low-end devices and more high end
ones. And organisations are embracing software technology. So while we
have had a downturn in the number of physical hardware units sold, we
have seen an increase in the sale of workflow software - up 140% on last
year,” she said.
Another profitable trend identified by Fielden is the shift from
mono to colour devices, driven in part by organisations’ eagerness to
reduce the cost of using external print suppliers.
“We are still seeing a migration from mono to colour: mono is
declining and colour is growing, albeit not as quickly as we would
have liked. That is down to two things: colour is becoming cheaper;
and where people are managing costs they are looking at what they
outsource and what they can bring in-house.”
Helen George, Ricoh services marketing manager, was another to
point out that a narrow focus on the number of pages printed was the
wrong way to approach the printer market.
“Ricoh is not worried about the number of pages or clicks reducing,”
she said. “What’s more important is to have the right level of printing for
the customer, as this creates opportunities for MPS providers. We are not
dependent on increasing clicks to grow the market: we have different and
higher level solutions to help the customer do more. If a company is only
looking at page numbers to grow their business they are behind what is
expected [from a modern print provider].”
