The Million Dollar Question, What Is The State of Printing in 2014?

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The Million Dollar Question, What Is The State of Printing in 2014?
By Adam Haigh

That is the million dollar question, is it not? We would argue that printing means many things to many people, and while one article probably can?t capture every iota of thought when it comes to printing, we at least want to talk about some of the larger movements.

Let?s start with rather axiomatic theory that printing is not dead, despite many people calling for its demise. While printing in what some people may view as a more traditional view may be on the decline, printing, like any good thing, has found its own ways to evolve and stay relevant. Are less pages being printed in some houses today? It?s very likely. But, that doesn?t mean that printing does not have its place in the consumer space.

We are still likely a few years away from massive adoption of 3-D printing for consumers, and if social media networks like Twitter and Facebook as well as user forums on Yahoo! are any indication, plenty of people are still printing with what they already own as well as asking for advice on how to replace broken printers. This type of evidence, though admittedly a bit anecdotal, would seem to fly in the face of those who have already pronounced printing to be dead. Believe us, there is still plenty of margin to be had selling printers and the ink and toner that goes into them.

Even laser printers, once thought to really only be for office environments, have made their way down in size, and more importantly in cost, which increases the appeal for home or small office users who are mainly concerned with the printing of text. Both Dell and HP for instance, have monochrome laser printers that are single and multi-function (with wireless connectivity) for under $150.

Likewise, inkjets have a broad range of prices and functions, so they no longer have to play second fiddle to lasers in SMB in some cases, even in enterprise environments. Most recently, it has been HP who has upped the ante for inkjets with their Pro X series of single and multi-function printers. They boast print speeds of up to 70ppm for General Office mode printing and have a lower running cost than many lasers.

While it is true that some vendors like Kodak and Lexmark have chosen to opt out of consumer inkjet printing, there are many vendors such as HP, Canon, Epson, and Brother who are continuing to produce models with a great variety of features and functions at several different price points. In other words, if you would like an inkjet printer, you should have no trouble finding one that meets your needs.

Thus far we?ve been talking about the physical aspect of printing a document or a photo, but to leave it at that would be doing injustice to the capabilities of printers today. Printers today have advanced way beyond simply spitting out sheets in monochrome or color as well as scanning, copying, and faxing hardcopy documents.

Many printers today that fit into both the inkjet or laser category are able to act as the gateway to document repositories for all types and sizes of businesses. Users are able to take hardcopies of documents, or even files from a USB drive and with the touch of a few buttons upload them to a folder on a network drive, broadcast them out over email, and much more.

Vendors like Lexmark, Xerox, and most recently, Dell, have made laser printers which come pre-installed with software solutions which allows the creation of customized workflows, the storing of common forms, and easy, automatic uploading to many well established cloud sharing sites like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Printers are also provide robust security options like automatic encryption of documents, user authentication, even remote management of entire fleets.

Printing technology has also worked very hard to keep up with the changing patterns of the workforce. Wireless printing has evolved to become much, much more than simply printing to a printer that is on the same network as you are. Beginning with HP?s ePrint in 2009, mobile printing solutions have been steadily growing. Nowadays, in many instances you don?t necessarily have to be in the same state as where you printing, as long as both you and the printer are online and connected through the cloud. Additionally, printing no longer relies on access to even a PC or a laptop.

In fact, mobile printing has garnered so much attention that many of the OEM printer vendors have formed an alliance to create standards. The Mopria Alliance was formed by representatives from Canon, HP, Samsung, and Xerox. Further, among the executive members are Brother, Epson, and Lexmark; and Ricoh and Pantum are general members. They point to research done by IDC which indicates that mobile printing is and will continue to be on the rise and there is more and more adoption of mobile/handheld device technology. With this much corporate firepower and knowledge, the results will certainly be laudable at the end.

Summing up then, these examples should go to prove that printing is far from dead, and that it will continue to do what it’s always done—evolve and adapt.

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March 27, 2014 at 11:17 AM