PRINTER MARKET POISED FOR GROWTH

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Date: Wednesday February 28, 2007 11:37:00 am
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    Driven by Technology Innovations Printers Market Poised for Renewed Growth
    PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb.07- Despite the constant need among organizations to shift to a paperless working environment, printing technology has survived and grown considerably in the last couple of years. Inkjet and laser technologies continue to see wide-scale acceptance. Market factors and the emergence of new application areas are driving these technologies. Prime motivators for the development of inkjet printing include next generation applications such as printed electronics and organ printing, and for laser printers, they are the product price and the need for laser color printing solutions.

    “Other key factors driving inkjet and laser printing technologies include growing demand for cost-efficient quality prints and the increasing need and use of color printing,” notes Technical Insights Research Analyst Subrahmania Janakiraman. “These apart, wireless printing, document management systems, and the increasing use of multi-functional devices (MFDs) are likely to play a crucial role in the growth and development of these technologies.”
    Inkjet printing is beginning to find a whole array of applications with minor modifications in its basic construction. Innovations in the printhead, inks, and dispensing system are finding increasing researchers. Concerning application, inkjet printing is already finding use in the printed electronics domain, with organ printing in the future (around the 2010 timeframe). Advertising is another domain garnering research interest in big format printers. Printing directly from a PC onto the medium is becoming the norm and this computer-to-plate technology can compete with offset printing in terms of its final print quality.

    Wireless printing and document security are two other drivers gaining importance in secure printing. Ensuring document safety, while wirelessly printing the same is, to a certain extent, driving minor innovations in parallel, yet complementary technological domains.Significantly, pricing is becoming a key issue for laser printer penetration into the inkjet printer market. To cater to this requirement, companies can look forward to migrating manufacturing to lower cost countries, and hence reap the benefits. From a technology perspective, the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) could spell a reduction in overall prices of the same. On a global level, companies can look forward to creating region (or country)-specific solutions, rendering them price sensitive (with a slight compromise on final print quality).Concerning challenges, document security is probably the single most important issue confronting manufacturers. While printers with sufficient security features for safe printing of documents are essential, the software aspect of printing needs to address the issue of wireless security in a secure environment.

    “Companies need to have a more comprehensive look at document management and security, to cater to the very dynamic and uncertain working environment,” says Janakiramna. “Access codes and finger print matching is the way for overcoming security-related challenges.”
    To conclude, future applications could largely dictate the success of inkjet technology. For laser printing, providing a mass market appeal using smart pricing options would help it penetrate the stronghold of inkjet printing and the development of color printing (especially for the low end market) is another factor that would enable its long-term growth in comparison with inkjet printing. From a product cost perspective, migration to lower cost countries is essential for sustained profits within each technology segment.

    Advances in Printing Technology & Equipment is part of the Electronic Devices Subscription. It provides insights on inkjet, laser, digital and large format printing technologies. In this research, Frost & Sullivan’s expert analysts thoroughly examine the following applications: printed electronics, business printing, commercial printing, and application in the medical organ printing domains.

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