The printing market is often dismissed as “stagnant.” But if recent forecasts are anything to go by, reports of the industry’s demise have been exaggerated. Indeed, the multi-function printer (MFP) market is showing encouraging signs of life.
A recent study by HTF Market Intelligence estimates that the MFP market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.15 percent in the Americas, APAC and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) areas between now and 2020.
But as the speed of printing innovation continues to intensify, the modern MFP is changing – as is its role in the contemporary office. This has led astute IT admins to ponder the questions: What makes an MFP really stand out in today’s market? And could technological advances eventually blur the boundaries between conventional printers and smart MFPs?
Key Category
In the past few years, modern MFPs have become increasingly powerful: capable of completing complex tasks in short timeframes and dealing with very sophisticated workflows.
But with so many devices available to modern business customers, how can IT admins hope to find the stand-out devices that their companies need?
Before investing in new office tech, the first factor to take into account is perhaps the most obvious of all: performance.
Many of Samsung Printing’s most recent MFP releases, such as the Smart MultiXpress M5360RX, feature powerful, quad-core 1.5GHz CPUs. These chipsets allow devices to run faster, even when processing more demanding print jobs – reaching print, copy and scan speeds of up to 53ppm for A4 tasks.
With Rendering Engine for Clean Pages (ReCP) technology, many of Samsung’s MFPs also offer enhanced readability. With super-sharp resolution of up to 1,200 x 1,200 dpi, MFPs like these can improve the quality of your company’s printed materials immeasurably – even at higher speeds.
Stay Smart
For many, what really makes Samsung’s range of MFPs stand out is the Smart UX Center.
This innovation is an Android-powered, tablet PC-like touchscreen interface. It allows office users to work smarter – and even to download and customize their devices with a range of free and paid apps and widgets.
Smart UX Center users can customize their devices with all sorts of handy software, including the free-to-download Workbook Composer. This diverse app allows office staff to make a wide range of last-minute adjustments to their print jobs, without having to traipse back to their workstations to do so.
Workbook Composer allows for image cropping and changes in text formatting using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. It also lets you compose new documents and save files in multiple formats. You can then share these files by email, put them onto a shared server or distribute them via the cloud.
Total Triumph
Of course, technological prowess is all well and good, but that all comes to naught if devices are prohibitively expensive.
Fortunately for IT admins, Samsung Printing engineers always prioritize total cost of ownership (TCO) matters when creating new MFP devices. That is why Samsung printers often consume significantly less power than other MFPs. The M2885FW, for example, is proven by independent analysts to usea whopping 48 percent less energy per year than its competitors.
With a range of powerful, time- and money-saving troubleshooting apps like RemoteView and RemoteCall, service often costs less with Samsung, too. In many cases, they let remote engineers fix problems in a few minutes – without even having to set foot in your office.
A New Age
In the past,companies had to choose between low-cost but limited-function conventional devices and pricier but more versatile MFPs. But a recent development from Samsung Printing has helped change all this.
The Smart UX Mobile app actually allows users to break down the boundaries between 2- and 4-line LCD printers and smart MFPs. By harnessing smartphone technology, you can now enjoy touchscreen control over conventional devices, and use phone cameras to add scanning capability to non-MFP machines.
Furthermore, engineers are working tirelessly to improve the Smart UX Mobile app. They are looking at exciting new possibilities – like perhaps one day enabling fingerprint-verified authentication for pull printing tasks, even on conventional printers.
Growing Market
The MFP has come a long way since its inception. With faster, higher-performing, more cost-effective devices available, IT admins are now empowered with much more choice when making key decisions about office technology.
And with so many recent developments on the MFP front, it is perhaps little wonder that the market for these powerful devices continues to defy expectations – and grow by the year.
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