The colour printer market is growing exponentially with sales reaching record highs. This is according to Zandre Rudolph, HP product manager at Rectron. He says new technologies, more affordable prices and multifunction capabilities have combined to increase sales by around 20% so far this year.
"Colour laser printers are increasingly popular because of improved output capacities from the latest generation of machines and lower running costs linked to more competitively priced, branded replacement cartridges," he says.
"As a result, more companies are incorporating colour into their printed material and are reaping business benefits associated with greater visual impact, more clarity - particularly when it comes to such elements as pie and bar charts."
Rudolph says a major contributor to the success of the colour printer segment comes from the popularity of digital cameras and the consequent need for users to print their own photographs.
"There is a wide range of photographic printers on the market taking advantage of the boom in digital camera sales, which is spurred on by the rapid pace of development.
"There are a number of exciting new digital camera products in the pipeline which will fuel spectacular growth in this sector - growth that will spin off into the printer market."
Focusing on the printer technologies that will play prominent roles this year, Rudolph highlights the new multifunction printers (MFPs) in the laser category as having potentially the largest impact on the market.
"The new colour laser MFPs that will be launched this month are coming in at very keen prices and we can expect market acceptance of these and similar `all-in-one` offerings to be instantaneous and sales substantial."
Finally, commenting on suggestions that falling prices have triggered a price war that is eroding dealers` margins, Rudolph says the convergence of digital photo printing with traditional scanning and copier technologies are presenting dealers with a range of opportunities to employ their consulting skills in the marketplace and so improve revenue streams.
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