The paperless office is far from dead

Tiertime 3D printerA report said that European sales of dedicated and multifunction printers (MFP) in Europe fell by 0.8 percent in terms of units in the fourth quarter of last year.

But that’s only a small decline, and IDC said the hardcopy market in Western Europe recovered in 2014 with shipments overall growing.

MFP products represented 82.4 percent of all shipments, colour devices grew year on year by 17.3 percent.

Most of this growth came from MFP A4 products.

And in the fourth quarter of last year, business inlets grew by 51 percent, while high speed colour laser equipment showed “excellent” growth, said IDC.

However, in the UK, things weren’t as bright as other Western Europe countries. IDC said that the UK showed an 8.6 percent overall decline with decreases in sales of both laser and inkjet devices.