Colour lasers have a bumper year ahead

With local analysts bullish about the state of the local colour laser printing market, all of the indications are there for resellers of colour laser technology to experience a bumper year.

Says Neil Rom, managing director of Printacom, local representative for the Oki laser printer brand in South Africa, "Local analyst firm BMI-T recently reported that colour made up 5.5% of the local laser printer market in 2003. That figure grew to over 10% in the last year, representing a year-on-year growth in colour laser technology of over 114%."

"BMI-T has predicted that the colour portion of the market will undergo another 50% growth spurt during 2005, constituting an increase in unit shipments from 12000 units in 2004 to 18000 units in 2005. My personal belief is that the market will in fact exceed this forecast by a rather large margin," Rom continues.

In terms of his own prediction, Rom believes BMI-T`s prediction will be exceeded by in the region of 50% and the growth in colour laser technology will once again exceed the 100% mark. "This means the market will see an increase in colour laser unit shipments from 12000 in 2004, to in the region of 25000 units in 2005. Should this happen, the local colour laser printer market would account for between 15 and 20% of the local laser printer market," he says.

"These reasons alone are compelling enough for those local technology resellers not currently focused on the printer market to become involved," he adds, "Besides this however, there are also a number of compelling reasons resellers should become representative of the Oki brand"

"For starters, Printacom has put a great deal of focus into its partner programme. New features in our partner programme include the `show and sell` initiative which rewards resellers for the number of demonstrations and engagements they initiate with customers, as well as offering preferential pricing on their demonstration stock; our investment in the Oki bus, a mobile demonstration facility for all Oki technologies aimed at the enterprise market; and the extremely pro-active approach Printacom has towards developing and passing leads onto its reseller base."

"Add to this the fact that Oki`s colour laser technology is now in its fifth generation and features numerous innovative approaches to product design. Users of Oki printers not only save on consumables and achieve an overall lowest TCO rating when compared to market peers, but resellers have many compelling reasons to focus on the Oki brand when selling colour printing solutions to their customers.

"These reasons include, numerous innovative incentive programmes and Printacom`s forward thinking approach to growing and passing leads on to its channel. We have also developed a true partnership with our channel partners, helping where necessary to secure funding and overcome stock problems both from the hardware and consumables perspective," Rom says.

With the colour laser printer market`s growth almost guaranteed and more partner initiatives still to come from Printacom during the course of the year, Rom concludes that 2005 will not only be a great year for colour laser technology, but for Printacom and its resellers too.