Surge in demand for color printers seen

Hewlett-Packard Corp., a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services, expects a surge in color printers beginning this decade due to the popularity of the Internet and the wider availability of color-capable printing devices.

Joergen Jakobsen, HP Asia Pacific marketing director, said the company expects to maintain its lead in the worldwide color-printing market with a current share of 74 percent in laser printers and 54 percent in inkjet printers.

In 1999, he noted that HP achieved a 75 percent and 120 color printer growth in terms of US dollars and units, respectively.

However, only 18.5 percent of the firm's total LaserJet revenue last year was for color printers, thereby, providing a huge potential for growth in this area.

The International Data Corp. ((IDC) said that at present, color printing is more common among multinational corporations (MNCs) given the larger budget available and the stronger emphasis on corporate image.

Based on an IDC study, mature markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand, due to the wide usage of computers in general, user education is key to controlling color printing cost.

In countries such as People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Thailand and India, control comes in the form of limited or no access to the relevant equipment.

But while color printing is becoming increasingly popular especially as prices of color printers and copiers are reduced, IDC said monochrome printing will continue to dominate as long as there is some price difference.

"The rate of growth in color printing will, therefore, be directly correlated with the price of the hardware and the consumable," the group said.

Chuck Walter, HP general manager for imaging solutions, though, stressed that color in the office is coming.

According to him, a growing number of readers are enjoying a major competitive advantage using color printing solutions as companies begin bringing documents such as color brochures and manuals from off-set printers back in-house, to departmental, work group and desktop printers.

He pointed out that color printing will be effortless and intuitive as innovative technology will make color document production easier than it has been before.

Color laser and inkjet printer, he added, will replace expensive commercial printing and that color documents will be limited only by the imagination.