Vendors are at odds with BMI-T over its reasons for the quarterly unit decline in single-function printers. Are multi-function printers to blame? Or is it a growing appetite for colour lasers? BMI-TECHKNOWLEDGE`S latest report on the SA printer market for the fourth quarter indicates a startling 5.9% year-on-year drop (Q4 2005/Q4 2004) in terms of unit shipments.

The reason given by analyst Tanja Naidoo is "cannibalisation of single-function printers by multi-functional units".

But South African printer vendors think differently, not surprisingly, because generally speaking, their market views are informed not just by outright trends, but also by their marketing strategies.

WORD FROM THE VENDORS

, MD of Printacom, sole local distributor of OKI printers, disagrees with the view that MFPs are cannibalising the single-function printer market.

"While inkjet printer sales have declined for the first time," he says, "this is better explained by an increased demand for colour laser printers, rather than a move to MFPs. The prices of colour laser printers are decreasing, with feature quality improving, which is driving demand."

Rom points out that while MFPs account for 50% of the laser printer market, the latest figures show around 40% growth in sales of single-function laser printers, with MFP growth at 30%. The biggest growth area in the single-function printer market was that of colour laser printers: a 100% increase over last year`s figures. Rom predicts that this will continue.

"The majority of growth in MFPs is in the small business and home sector," he says. "OKI is positioned in the business market and here the growth is definitely in colour laser single-function printers."

His assertion is backed by BMI-T, which says the main focus for vendors in Q4 2005 is the colour laser segment, which expanded 59.9% year-on-year.

In this market space, Rom says OKI has grown its market share by over 300% in the past year. "OKI has deliberately positioned itself to focus on colour laser printers e never went into inkjet printers [for that reason]," he adds.

AND ONE FOR THE ANALYST

In direct contrast with Rom but in line with analyst expectations, Ashley Botha, product manager for printers at Canon, sees MFPs as the sector with the most growth potential. "There is a trend towards MFPs, although this is partly due to the platform set by single-function printers," he says. Botha attributes the strength of single-function printers to the small and home user markets. "Colour laser printers suit the business user. With digital cameras allowing digital storage of photographs, the home user is not printing as much anymore," he explains.

Augie Jardim, marketing and communications manager at Kyocera Mita, also sees the growth in MFPs as the main future trend. She says the company`s decision to focus on MFPs has paid off - and adds that its concept of the printer has changed altogether. "We no longer focus solely on the printer, but on providing full solutions for document management."

OTHER DIFFERENCES

The basic disagreement between vendors merits a closer look at other currents in the fiercely competitive printer market, where market intelligence is hard to come by and trends difficult to discern, given the often opposing messaging from industry players.

To begin with, vendors` views also differ on the issue of buying versus renting. Canon is not involved in the rental market, seeing more advantage to the consumer in owning a printer. "The current lower prices and high-quality printers available to home users make buying the better option," says Botha.

Meanwhile Kyocera Mita supplies dealers that offer both options, with Jardim seeing the rental trend continuing. "The trend in South Africa is still to rent," she says, "so we are not seeing an increase in clients buying printer solutions. There is more of a buying emphasis overseas, mainly with entry- to mid-level users."

WHAT JOE PUBLIC WANTS

Since the needs of customers vary wildly from home users through to corporate, the variety of devices and business models gives a wealth of choice. , Edcon CIO, believes firmly in the concept of outsourcing.

"We`ve centralised to large printers which has helped save R2.5 million in the last year. The environment is all based on a cost-per-page, with consumption based on demand and usage," he says - therefore the company owns very few machines. "[By large printers] I mean centralised multifunctional landscape printers. They do faxing to e-mail, printing, copying and so on, and are placed in convenient positions in the [working] landscape," add Slabbert. At Wilderness Safaris, one of the country`s biggest in-bound tourist operators, IT manager Willem Cronje, has a very firm grip on the state of printing in the organisation. "We have some 200 users and push about 100 000 pages per month through our devices, much of which is in full colour," he says.

"Most printing is concentrated on big Xerox machines, which works well in our Terminal Services environment; some execs do have desktop printers as well, although most are happy to use the high volume devices which deliver better quality and a higher speed," he says.

Cost of printing is likewise a big issue for the company, which is why Cronje`s strategy is centred on powerful networked devices. "A desktop printer gives a cost-per-page of about 50c; off the big machines that is reduced to about 7 or 8 cents, for black and white prints" he says.

Sasfin Bank CIO Peter Oeschger says printing is something of a bugbear; in his organisation. Several strategies are followed depending on the use case. "At departmental level, the IT department makes recommendations, but the decision - and the budget - sits with the departmental head.

On the high-volume side, we outsource the printing to offsite specialists; for statements, we have an internal high volume machine that runs solidly for two days at the end of each month," he says.

Following technology trends in the printer market is necessary to ensure that optimal value is gained. Oeschger believes vendors are still trying underhand strategies of providing low cost hardware which requires high-cost, proprietary consumables to run. "You have to keep abreast of developments, as these things are expensive to run. But we`re definitely heading the route of the high-volume, networked MFP; it`s simple maths that you get more value from these devices," he adds.

COST PER YEAR

Printing takes up a significant proportion of company IT budgets; Cronje puts it at 10% of capital expenditure, while printing peripherals account for a further 10%. As intimated, Wilderness opts for owning its devices. "Rental doesn`t make sense, as it is in effect a method of financing the equipment that you end up owning after a fixed period. Unless there are cash flow issues, this model doesn`t really make sense; equipment acquisition, even by financing through an overdraft, is cheaper than rentals," he says.

For his part, Cronje is firmly behind the concept of the MFP, as these add further value than single-function printers. To Slabbert, the argument is a non-issue, as he sees printing - and, in a wider sense, document handling - merely as a service delivered to the organisation.

Clearly, business cases and management priorities will play a part in the chosen model for print delivery. But with development of products for all sectors of the market, from the workhorse dot matrix to the large-scale document station, the business of printing is likely to remain one that delivers value to users regardless of the chosen device format or business model.

The market is diverse and vendors provide considerable flexibility in terms of the ways in which businesses can procure.

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