Oscar Diamond, the market analyst’s Account Manager for Office, said that improvements in inkjet technology have led to a surge in business sales.
He said that the UK market recovered in March and April, overcoming a weak start to grow by 9.9 percent in volume and fall one percent in value, PCR Online reported. The laser market “largely” drove value declines, continuing a long-term pattern as business inkjet has grown.
Diamond explained that while laser has traditionally been preferable for businesses, offering “superior quality when printing in bulk” and with cheaper cartridges, a number of manufacturers have launched business inkjet ranges specifically for SMEs over the past few years. This has led to rapid growth in the UK and negative effects for the laser market.
Laser printer sales dropped four percent in volume and 13.6 percent in value in April 2015 year-on-year, while business inkjet has grown over 50 percent in value since 4Q2011, but shows signs of slowing down in 2015. Business inkjet sales started poorly in January and February, down 19.4 percent and 16.2 percent respectively, but have come back to grow 2.6 percent in April.
GfK further expects the market “to level out over 2015 rather than decline as much as it did at the start of the year, but it is a clear sign that the years of 30 per cent growth are gone”.
Non-business inkjet has performed strongly in 2015, up 12.2 percent in volume and 3.6 percent in value in April, with “all the growth” coming from MFPs, at 13 percent, while single function declined 34 percent in volume. “Innovative new ink payment models” that came in last year are “boosting public interest” in inkjet and encouraging users to upgrade.
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Inkjet cartridges can now be purchased “on a contract subscription plan”, as well as in one-off bulk deals for certain models. Standalone scanners are in decline, declining 20 percent in volume and 13 percent in value in 1Q2015, which is “no surprise” as MFPs continue to dominate. They did better in April, down just eight percent and five percent in volume and value respectively.
Entry level scanner tech can also “easily [be] incorporated into printers”, leading the scanner market away from the less-than-£100 ($156/€141) bracket.