New York, NY -- A recent report from Global Industry Analysts entitled Office Equipment: A Global Outlook projects that the global office printing market could be worth as much as $78 billion by the year 2015. So much for printing going away anytime soon, and it does not appear that a paperless office is still a long way off.
This is due to a few different factors. First, manufacturers have more than responded to the needs of the SOHO (small office and home office) with a variety of printers and functionalities at several price points. Users are able to find more of what they need at a lower price point. In larger settings, there has also been a shift away from each office worker having his or her own personal printer and instead sharing the units among many.
The industry has also seen an increase in not only sales of MFPs on both the inkjet and laser sides, but also more and more OEMs are offering flexible MPS solutions. At Castle Ink, we recently spoke with HP about their MPS offerings. In the interview with Mr. Bill Avey, he noted that [HP’s] their acquisition of Printelligent was “now developing its channels to do even more to help small to medium sized businesses…This acquisition has allowed us to invest with our channel partners and make the solutions that much more scalable.”
Over the next few years, Global Industry Analysts also predict that growth will be slower in the more established markets of the United States as well as Western Europe. Instead, the growth is expected to come from those areas which are still considered to be “emerging and developing”. These include places such as “Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe”. Of these, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Russia will reportedly experience the largest growth. Lexington, KY-based Lexmark announced in November 2011 that they would be opening their first-ever location in Moscow to meet the growing needs of the market in Russia and the CIS. Their general director for Lexmark Russia and CIS, Emmanuel Jan said “As an emerging market, Russia is clearly undergoing significant economic development, leading to increased demand and making it a prime target for us. Our intent is to further invest in Russia to become one of the key players in this region. The opening of our subsidiary in Moscow is a first but important step toward this goal.”
