UK printer sales crash as services and green rally

Research reveals there may still be opportunities in a flat year, despite a drop in hardware sales

Going down: sales of printers are falling

Analyst Gartner revealed sales of printers, copiers and multifunctional products (MFPs) in the UK fell 26.4 per cent in volume in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 18 per cent year-on-year.

Tosh Prabhakar, senior printing market analyst at Gartner, said UK sales contracted far more than in the rest of EMEA, which overall shrank 8.4 per cent by volume.
Until at least 2010, organisations will focus on right-sizing the number of devices, rather than buying new printers.

“However, managed print solutions (MPS) are huge,” said Prabhakar. “We do not track them in terms of revenue ­ it is quite difficult ­ and many providers do not give that information, but MPSs are now some of the strongest offerings.

“Green is also big because it can reduce costs,” he added.

Nigel Allen, product head at Kyocera, said its green products are selling. “We are actually predicting unit growth.”

Tracey Fielden, marketing manager at Canon, said it had grown 12 per cent in 2008, fuelled by MPS.