The printing industry, much like any other industry, has gone through continuous evolution and transformation.
New trends are progressively affecting the landscape of global businesses leaving no industry off the hook, with digital disruption being on the upswing ushering in the rise of digital technologies such as IoT, AI and more.
Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has propelled a wave of digital disruption like never before, forcing industries at large to adopt these trends into their ways of working with the printing industry being no exception.
As per reports, the global printing market size is expected to grow from $311,53-billion in 2021 to $322,43-billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3,5%. The printing market is expected to grow to $350,2-illion in 2026 at a CAGR of 2,1%.
The African printers market is expected to cross the value of $235,3-million by the end of 2031.
These strong numbers suggest that the printing industry globally as well as in Africa is opening doors to embracing new trends and technologies.
The African continent has seen an uptick in the use of digital inkjet printers given its faster printing rate as compared to the traditional printers.
“The beauty of digital printing lies int eh fact that it requires no manual setup, which makes it an extremely fast and efficient process,” says Eija Ota, business unit director of Canon central and north Africa. “This is particularly beneficial for low-volume projects as compared to offset printing, which is why we see a big demand for these printers.
“There is also plenty of scope to introduced customization without any real turnaround time, making digital printing a popular choice given the fast-paced world we live in.”
The inkjet print market is now worth $80,4-billion which is likely to reach $118,2-billion in 2025 according to latest Smithers’ report.
The past few years have seen a rapid upsurge in the demand for colour printing all across Africa, thus paving the way for growth in the demand for laser and inkjet printers across the continent.
The shift from black and white printing to colour printing has enabled the expansion of the laser and inkjet printers market, which consequently has driven the printers market in Africa.
With an estimated 2 000 commercial printing companies operating in Africa, majority of which are small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs), this demand is predicted to intensify even further, contributing to the high growth of the printing market in Africa.
Cyber security has emerged to be one of the top priorities for businesses, as industries are still struggling to come to terms with the after-effects of the pandemic. In the coming years, we will see print service providers prioritising print security, given that they deal with multiple stakeholders for print projects.
Hybrid ways of working are here to stay and have introduced new challenges when it comes to security, hackers are increasingly adopting innovative ways of cyber-attacks, making organisations’ data more vulnerable.
The threat of regulatory fines and subsequent loss of business also has the potential to cause ongoing damage to organisations.
“The efficient and secure management of data and information is vital to the health of any organisation,” says Ota. “Similar to any device connected to your network, your printers could be endangering your information security if not implemented and managed carefully.”
The wave of sustainability has taken most if not all industries by storm and for the right reasons. Businesses are placing emphasis on reducing their environmental impact as well as increasing their scores on the sustainability index. The current trends forecast a mounting demand for products that can offer both high functionality and low environmental impact.
As digital disruption continues to intensify, we are witnessing an upswing of cloud computing where applications and products are no longer hosted on the desktops or on laptops and instead, the users can directly access such services from the cloud. Consequentially, cloud printing is emerging to be one of the hot trends in the industry with 67% of organisations expecting to increase their use of cloud print management, with a further 5% planning to move completely to cloud printing according to a report.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has completely transformed business priorities and ways of working around the globe, people now prefer to work in the cloud as it has benefits such as flexibility, the potential to increase productivity and efficiency, while delivering real cost benefits,” Ota says. “Providing cloud-managed print services is no longer an add-on but a pre-requisite. Printing services that are convenient, cost-effective, environment friendly while delivering a great quality output will pave the path for future trends in the printing industry across Africa.”