Has the penny finally dropped for printer manufacturers?

Byline: Dylan Armbrust

Has the penny finally dropped for printer manufacturers?

The 'big four' printer makers are finally cottoning on to our complaints, with great results says Dylan Armbrust

I recently attended a market briefing held by one of the 'big four' printer manufacturers, the content of which I found completely unsurprising, yet totally fascinating. It would be unfair to mention which of the big four (Canon, Lexmark, Epson and Hewlett-Packard) it was, but I can share some of the company's 'insights'.

As Powerpoint presentations go, it was pretty par for the course. Market share, units sold, models upcoming, models being phased out, and so on. However, the truly interesting information came up near the end of the presentation when our hosts began to describe consumer attitudes towards printers and printing in general.

The first observation, garnered through extensive market research, was that consumers are price-driven and that the cost of consumables (that is, inkjet cartridges) is a big issue for them. The second observation was that print quality is no longer considered important. The third observation was that printers aren't considered valuable IT items any more.

I imagine that after reading the above paragraph you're thinking those are silly things to say and that anyone with a bit of life experience could have made those 'observations' themselves. And I agree, but what I found surprising was just how surprised our friends at the printer company were at the results of their research.