Analysts Technavio have forecast a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of three percent a year until 2021.
A press release from the company reported that the three percent growth rate was predicted after a research study covered the “growth prospects of the global MFP market”, and added that the report included individual consumer use of MFPs as well as commercial and business sectors. The largest shares of this market are held by “APAC followed by EMEA and the Americas” and “the penetration of MFPs in EMEA and the Americas is high, and the market will reach maturity”.
Growth is mainly from sales in “emerging economies”, and in regions like EMEA and the Americas vendors are working “toward paperless document solutions”. Technavio highlighted three factors that contribute to the growth of the global MFP market: the evolving business environment, the decreasing cost of MFPs and the increasing efficiency of MFPs.
The first is the result of the preference for a multi-purpose device as opposed to single-function devices, and the report said that this is regardless of whether the model is mono, colour, inkjet or laser, noting that MFPs have evolved into smart MFPs. The second reason is due to sales strategies that have reduced the initial costs of buying MFPs, making them affordable for “home and small office[s]”, which has resulted in “the consumer segment accounting for a 72 percent market share for unit shipment in the global MFPs market in 2016”.
Chetan Mohan, Leading Computing Devices Research Analyst at Technavio, said: “The documents that need to be stored digitally have to be scanned, which increases the use of the scanning functionality of the MFPs. Wireless connectivity and network technology for remote control are expected to increase the demand for smart MFPs during the forecast period.”
Mohan also noted that although the vendors “face losses due to such low ASPs” they make up for it in the sale of “ink and toner cartridges”, making sure that the manufacturers have made their MFP products in “such a way that they are compatible only with the vendor’s brand of ink refills”. The efficiency of MFPs is being constantly innovated to “reduce TCO of MFPs” and vendors “aim to capitalise on the market growth in emerging nations and expand their market shares in the developed countries”.
Technavio concluded by noting that vendors have “successfully incorporated power management and precision print technologies that not only improve print quality but also help manage even ink distribution, which makes the cartridges last longer”. The top OEMs meanwhile were named as Canon, HP Inc, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh and Xerox.