From an application perspective, volume clearly fits into the picture. But e-commerce will have an impact on applications as more documents are printed closer to where they are used. Corr predicts that managing a large number of printing devices over a network is the wave of the future. Documents will be created, then distributed and printed on smaller digital printing devices as printing migrates downstream, closer to the end user. Almost two dozen manufacturers produce digital printers for every conceivable application.
Competition is fierce and improvements continue to be made at a rapid pace.
Let s look at some of the offerings. Desktop offerings are generally low volume and slow, although many users want a printer for personal use. Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, QMS and Xerox lead this market. Some are networkable and most include RIPs. Mark Matthews, vice president of marketing for Toshiba's Electronic Imaging Division, sees a trend toward increasing multifunctionality.