This year`s fifth Lyra Imaging Symposium was held last week in Palm Springs and has become the key annual event that looks at the trends and directions within the imaging and printing markets.
The use of colour within the business environment is poised to take off.
Paul Booth, MD, Global Research Partners
Although a significant amount of ground was covered during the conference, the following is a brief synopsis of some of the key findings of the past year coupled with some of the key predictions for the coming months (not presented in any prioritised order):
- The shipments of digital photocopiers during 2001 exceeded the shipments of analog products for the very first time.
- Production digital colour printing is now a reality, and we in SA are already seeing this situation unfolding with the installation of several Indigo systems.
- The use of colour within the business environment is poised to take off, probably following the impetus in the market likely to stem from the upcoming announcement by HP of its new colour laser printers.
- The market has now moved away from the PC-centric environment to an Internet-centric world, with digital conversations becoming more commonplace and covering the full gamut of activities from scanning through to information processing, including production printing, covered in a single business. Thus, we will see during the next two to three years information content, delivery and management as one process.
- The expected growth in the printing market in 2002 is to come from emerging markets such as China and India, since the USA and European markets are showing little, if any, PC growth, which is often the key for printer sales.
- The key new trends for the coming months and the next year or so will be: speech recognition and the mobility side of document processing and printing, where it will become possible to scan and print from anywhere and at any time.
Also included within the program was a panel discussion involving technology analysts from such organisations as Credit Suisse Boston, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers. Some of the views expressed during this session included suggested severe doubts as to the long-term survival of Xerox and Eastman Kodak, despite recent moves by both companies to address their long-term profitability requirements.
The host of the Lyra Imaging Symposium is Lyra Research, the leading research organisation focused on imaging and output/printing. Lyra Research publishes the monthly "Hard Copy Observer" and the "Hard Copy Supplies Journal" as well as being involved in other significant research and consultancy in these focused areas.
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