Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
HP Inc. Starts Life after Split with Technology Innovations in Printing, File Sharing, and Visualisation
Till about a couple of months ago, discussions over the HP split were all over the technology circles. There was even a sudden spurt of movement from the company through business moves and decisions right before the big split. This was typified by our coverage of HP Inc.’s strategy for reviving flagging business divisions as well as their plans to expand into the Indian market more. However, since the big split, everything has gone silent. While this silence most probably had more to do with the new companies, HP Inc. and HP Enterprise, consolidating their positions and business strategies, it seemed ominous.
However, the world is where it should be because how HP Inc. is faring in its new life is now known. Within a few days after the split i.e. the end of November, HP Inc. gave people a minor scare by releasing a poor earnings report. The release caused the company’s stocks to drop in value mainly because the financial figures showed a decline of about 7 percent in the company’s revenues. The company’s total revenue in the 2015 fiscal was only USD 103.4 billion. The poor revenue numbers prompted a minor rejig in the company’s product portfolio with the removal of its G2 tablet series. The G2 tablet series falls in the low end market segment of the tablet sector.
Still, the rosy side of that release was that HP Inc. had diverted a good deal of funds to support its Research and Development (R&D) projects. While in the 2014 fiscal, the company’s R&D department had USD 876 million to play with, that number was increased to USD 934 million in the 2015 fiscal.
In terms of innovations, HP Inc. is benefitting from the patents that the parent company has earned in the third quarter of the last year. As per estimates, the company has earned no less than 469 patents in that period with the total number for the whole year standing at 1355. The focus of most of these patents was either on networking devices or computing devices.
One of the more noteworthy patents from that cluster was for the technology to introduce additional layers of security when it comes to authorising print commands involving sensitive documents and sensitive data. File sharing patents were highlighted by one for direct device to device communication without the need for network access. This technology is intended to make it easier for any computing device to create a direct data link with the printing device, taking away the middleman i.e. the company’s network. There were also a number of visualisation patents focusing on technology that will help network administrators monitor and manage a large number of IP addresses on the network.
IDC: Business Inkjet Segment Continues To Grow In a Shrinking Market
While there will always be noise in the business circles about paperless strategies and techniques, the really wise observers have claimed that businesses are still a long way away from coming to a point where they can go completely paperless. These are individuals who say that going paperless is not viable for most businesses these days, unless you only speak about businesses that operate in the Information Technology (IT) sector. Well, the numbers seem to be supporting these types of individuals.
A latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) has shown that the inkjet market segment focusing solely on businesses has grown significantly in the third quarter of the 2015 fiscal. This growth, according to IDC, is despite the fact that on an overall basis the printing device market has suffered in the same period.
As per IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals (HCP) Tracker, shipments of business inkjet devices continued their upward trajectory by posting a year on year growth for the quarter at 16.3 percent. This was in spite of the fact that the hardcopy peripherals market dropped on an overall basis by 6.3 percent in the same period. The total shipments made in the same period dropped to only 25.8 units which caused a drop in value as well. By value, the drop was to the tune of 5.7 percent which amounts to about USD 13 8 billion.
The study from IDC also revealed the healthy state of the Managed Print Services (MPS) with the shipment of associated devices growing in number. High end colour laser devices also showed massive improvements with a growth of no less than 15.3 percent. IDC defines high end colour devices as those devices that deliver high quality with speeds higher than 45 pages per minute.
Between various Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), the company that suffered the most was Samsung whose shipments dropped by an unbelievable 21 percent. HP came in second with a drop of 7.9 percent, followed by Canon with 6.5 percent and Brother with 3.2 percent. Epson showed the lowest decline at only 1.3 percent.
IDC’s Worldwide HCP tracker reports tend to focus on detailed information regarding various devices within the printing sector such as printers, multifunction printers (MFPs) and even digital copiers. The tracker is based around a detailed electronic database that tracks changes, modifications, and trends in the highly competitive printing market. The report is based on data from all over the world.
IDC itself is a reputed global market research corporation. According to IDC, it advisory services and market intelligence to companies operating in sectors such as consumer technology, telecommunications, and information technology.
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