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12
BULLETIN
According to research by IDC, the Western
European printer and multifunction (MFP)
market declined by 1.5% in unit terms in
3Q16, compared with the same period a
year ago. The study also reported a negative
performance in the inkjet market but a
positive trend within the laser market.
The market has continued to decline quarter
after quarter for more than a year now. IDC says
that the decline this quarter is again largely due
to the contraction in consumer printing and is
relatively in line with forecasts.
Revenues grew by 3%; inkjets showed a small
1.5% increase due to business inkjets and laser
revenue increased by 3.2%.
The UK recorded a poor performance, with a
5.3% decline, stronger than the negative trend
seen in Western Europe. Business inkjet also
performed below the regional average, with an
18.4% decrease. Both the laser and inkjet markets
declined, but there was very strong growth in
A3 inkjet printers (+66%) and A4 laser MFPs
(+21.2%).
MFP sales down
but laser on
the rise
Breakthrough SSD
UK-based Integral Memory, and Korean
flash storage provider Novachips, have
developed Solid State Drives that deliver
an exponential leap in capacity and
performance. The new breed of SSD use a
unique storage control architecture that
meets the growing need for ‘up-scale’
expansion among enterprise data centres.
Software and solutions
sales remain buoyant
New research by IT Europa has revealed that
in the last year, Europe’s top 500 Solution
VARs have increased revenues by 7%.
IT Europa’s latest database report, Solutions
VARs in Europe - the Top 500, shows strong
demand for software and solutions across all major
verticals with the greatest focus amongst major
VARs on the public sector (62.8%), banking/finance
(55.6%), retail (55.6%) and healthcare (41.4%).
In terms of types of software the hottest sectors
were networking/security software (79.2%),
followed by CRM software (45.8%), ERP software
(45%) and internet software (45%). Another
notable development is the surge in the proportion
of Solution VARs which offer managed service-
based solutions which has now reached 77%, an
increase of more than 40% over the last two years.
“With continued downward pressures
on hardware sales and even infrastructure
technologies becoming commoditised, software
and solutions sales represent a ray of hope for the
European IT sector,” said Alan Norman, Managing
Director, IT Europa. “The demand for software
and solutions is continuing to rise and Solution
VARs, ISVs and increasingly Managed Service
Providers will all play a major role in how these are
developed and delivered in the face of fast evolving
customer demands,” he added.
Brother to sponsor cycling
team
Brother UK has partnered with North East
Pro Cycling to become the team’s lead title
sponsor for the 2017 season. The team has
continued to develop over the past three
years and 2016 saw them achieve seventy
race victories and register both national and
international success.
Brother Managing Director Phil Jones said:
“I’ve been impressed by everything that the team
has achieved in 2016 and aspires to achieve in the
2017 season. This partnership reflects a portfolio of
sponsorships the business has invested in, backing
the domestic sport at all levels. We’re all about
teamwork, partnership and results, so this new
association makes perfect sense.”
Samsung launches new
A4 mono MFP
The newly launched Smart MultiXpress
M5360RX features
include full
customisability,
professional
quality prints
and high cost
efficiency. It is
intended to be
of benefit to a
range of offices,
including public
organisations and
financial firms,
which often need
to deal with
heavy document
workloads.
The total cost
of ownership is strong due to its large toner
yield and low power consumption. This new
MFP also allows offices to enhance workflows
thanks to the Smart UX Center, a customisable,
easy-to-use, Android-based interface that
features downloadable printing related apps
and widgets that can be tailored to meet an
office’s needs.
New network scanner for
ISVs and SIs
The Plustek eScan A250 is primarily
designed for systems integrators, ISVs
and VARs who want to easily incorporate
a feature-rich standalone scanner into
business systems they provide to enterprise
customers.
It comes with Wi-Fi and Ethernet built in and an
easy customisable open platform API, which offers
developers the convenience of integration, with
the choice to develop apps as a connector that can
streamline scanning files directly to any registered
document management system, or create a
customisable eScan network scanner interface.
Compared to the existing model, document
processing speeds have been boosted by 300%
with the recommended daily volume now 6,000
sheets. The eScan A250 also offers faster colour
document scanning at 26 pages per minute at 200
dpi that’s up from 4 pages and equates to a 550%
improvement. Black and white and grayscale
speeds have doubled to 30 ppm.
Out of the box, a powerful
software bundle is provided
which includes ABBYY
OCR Sprint for PC
and Presto! Page
Manager for PC.
.
com
The Integral SVR PRO range delivers a
breakthrough in Enterprise SSD capacity
