Demand for digitalperks up industry
By Staff -- Purchasing, 5/21/1998
Growing demand for copiers that use digital technology has perked up the maturing industry: Copier placements rose by 18% last year, according to new figures available from CAP Ventures, Norwood, Mass.The increase from 1.4 million units placed in 1996 to 1.7 million in 1997 is being driven by several factors, says Bob Sostilio, director, Converging Digital Peripherals Consulting Service, CAP Ventures.
The first is the introduction of digital copiers. Helping to spur the reseller channel to market their products to new prospective customers are manufacturers introducing a host of new copiers. And, it so happens that while suppliers were selling the features of new digital machines to corporate buyers, they came away with additional orders--for new analog machines.
Of the copiers that were placed in 1997, less than 6%--some 100,000 units--were digital models. "Corporate buyers still demand convenience," says Sostilio, about the increase in analog copier placements. "There's something to be said about walking up to a machine and making a copy. Not everyone has access to networks, scanners, or printers."
Another reason is quality. While there are advantages to using a digital copier over an analog model (which uses light lens technology to reproduce copies), Sostilio says that buyers still tend to base their buying decision on copy quality.
"Buyers don't really care much about what makes a copier work. They do, however, care about output quality and what it costs to reproduce each copy. With the new digital copiers, end users gain the benefit of being able to manipulate copy. Yet the output in the external tray has been outstanding as well." Big players in the digital copier market include Ricoh, Xerox, and Canon. In the color copier market, they are Xerox and Ricoh.
A third reason is cost. Digital copier costs have started to approach those of analog copiers. As recently as 3-4 years ago, many resellers were attaching a premium to digital copiers, says Sostilio.
According to figures from CAP Ventures, copier placements are forecast to grow in excess of 5% annually. Reasons for the healthy outlook, however, will not be similar to those of a year ago, says Sostilio. Future growth, he says,"will come from replacements of analog devices by digital copiers, as manufacturers continue to introduce units equipped with controllers that provide capability to connect to a network of personal computers."
To prepare resellers who will be servicing these new connectable digital copiers, manufacturers--Ricoh, Konica, Canon, Mita, Minolta, et al--are providing extensive pre-sale and service support. While techniques used to sell digital and analog machines are similar, some resellers hired network engineers with capability to support both hardware as well as software.
For their part, color copiers--which by nature are digital copiers-- are competing with print-for-pay markets. Like their black & white counterparts, prices of color copiers have fallen significantly--by 30%--over the past few years. As per copy cost of ownership becomes more palatable to corporate buyers, Sostilio anticipates continued growth in this market. It also doesn't hurt, he says, that color copiers have capability to produce prints faster than network printers, a benefit appreciated by workgroups.
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