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Print.IT Reseller
www.printit
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Potential for
inkjet printing
25
business inkjets
For many years, the prevailing
sentiment was that laser devices
are most appropriate for workgroup
office use and inkjet technology
best for home and small business
environments.
However, in a recent study entitled
Is Inkjet Printing Technology Ready to
Transform the Office Printing Environment?
InfoTrends reports that it is expecting
business inkjet devices to take a greater
share of the office printing market.
The analyst house has believed for
some time that there is an opportunity for
inkjet technology to play a greater role in
office printing. It anticipates that worldwide
placements of business inkjet devices will
grow from 14.7 million in 2011 to 18.9
million in 2016 at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2%.
In recent years, business inkjet printers
and multifunctional peripherals (MFPs)
have surpassed laser devices in the US as
the leading technology by unit shipment
volume. And InfoTrends estimates that
business inkjet
will represent 56% of all devices by 2016,
compared to 44% for laser.
While InfoTrends sees a bright future for
business inkjet in the office environment,
they say that this is largely dependent on
vendors identifying and addressing the most
important market needs. To fully capitalise
on the expected growth of the business
inkjet market, they say that vendors will
need to ensure their product development
efforts and subsequent sales and marketing
execution resonate with business users
around the world.
An opportunity
Matt Marshall, Head of Print & Imaging,
Futuresource Consulting, says that business
inkjet has been bandied around for several
years now as a positioning statement against
the de facto business printing solution that
is laser.
“However, it is only in the past year that
a solution truly capable of matching and
displacing laser in the general office has
come to market, with both Epson and HP
launching products that can truly meet the
demands of general business printing.
“Business inkjet printers offer exceptional
print quality and a print speed equal to or
better than many competitive laser products.
In the coming years I expect to see business
inkjet printers widely adopted in both SMB
and enterprise print environments – with
exponential growth forecast in both unit
sales and pages produced in the UK and right
across EMEA.”
Marshall’s view is that increasingly buyers
are less concerned about ‘what’s under
the hood’ and instead tend to focus on
performance, cost and the total solution.
From a dealers’ perspective, he says the
key drivers for wider adoption will be a lower
cost per page and the ability to integrate
devices into an MPS offering. “MPS inclusion
will inevitably grow over time, with HP
expected to incorporate its recently launched
Officejet Pro X model (and subsequent
launches) into its SMB MPS offering sooner
rather than later.
Infotrends
estimates
that
business
inkjet will
represent
56% of all
devices by
2016...
InfoTrends estimates
that approximately
73% of print devices
in the office in 2011
were laser-based
(globally) compared
to 27% for inkjet.
Continued...
Matt Marshall,
Head of Print
& Imaging,
Futuresource
Consulting