Photo: jared moran / Flickr

While there has been no shortage on prophesying the effect tablet PCs will have on computing, Morgan Stanley has just released a report that has caught us – and likely many others – off guard. It talks about how tablet PCs will negatively affect the printing supplies and greater printer market.

More tablets sold, less printing done

More specifically, the Morgan Stanley report suggests that there is (and will be) a negative correlation between tablet PC sales and printing done – in other words, the more tablets sold, the less printing will be done. Morgan Stanley says it best, writing [via SAI]: ‘Printing behavior is structurally changing; we expect a reduction in enterprise and commercial printing.’

Given that printing is a two-part business, comprising the actual printing hardware, and the ink consumables, this is not a good thing for company’s heavily invested in the printing field. Furthermore what many people don’t realise is just how much money printing companies make from printing supplies, meaning the slightest dip in sales could be the difference between profit and loss.

Why HP’s tablet strategy is suddenly critical

With the Morgan Stanley report suggesting printing supply orders will see a 2-5 per cent drop in developed markets in 2012, this puts companies like HP, Lexmark and Ricoh at risk, with these companies either being entirely built on printing, or being significantly reliant on that part of their business.

As such, Silicon Alley Insider makes an astute observation as to why the HP TouchSmart tablet PC is so important to Hewlett Packard – it might allow the company to offset the drop in printing supply revenue through revenue garnered from tablet PC sales. In fact HP is much more fortunate than Ricoh and Lexmark both, in that it is significantly divested from the printing supplies business, whereas its competitors are not.

What about tablet PC printing

Even though tablet PC printing solutions like Apple’s Air print and similar Honeycomb solutions are exciting, the Morgan Stanley report is spot on in asserting these devices will negatively impact the unnecessary waste of paper and print. After all, why print a document to show to someone when you can just lug it to on your portable, show the document in digital form and make decisions based on that? Done deal.

Photo: liewcf / Flickr

As we slowly move towards a paperless society, the average home office or small office needs fewer devices for paper-based tasks like printing, scanning, sending faxes and so on. However, some people still insist on faxing and the occasional document still needs to be scanned, so much so that doing away with these devices completely isn’t practical. There is a solution, though: all-in-one printers.

The advantage

The advantage of all-in-one printers is that they combine the key functions of printing, faxing, scanning, occasionally photocopying and landline telephones into one device. What this means is you have less devices clogging up space in your office without giving up on the functions you use very rarely, like faxing for example.

The disadvantage

The major disadvantage of all-in-one printers is that they often can’t perform any one task as well as a dedicated device can. So, if you were to opt for a stand-alone printer, it could likely print paper faster, store more paper in its tray, and so-on. Remember, this is all an efficiency thing, here. Furthermore, if one function breaks, you have to send the whole device in for repairs, whereas if you had each function on separate devices, you would never have this issue. It’s certainly something to think about.

Do you need one?

Now, weighing up the pros and cons of having an all-in-one printer, before buying all-in-one printers you need to ask yourself if you need one, as well as look out for potential red flags before you do purchase one.

The biggest red flag for not buying one is volume. If you receive a high volume of faxes, need to scan frequently or if your business is very paper reliant, rather pay the extra money for a dedicated device that does that one thing and only that one thing brilliantly well.

If volume isn’t a problem, and you’d like to save on space and clutter, do it!

Buying recommendation

Given the potential pitfalls of an all-in-one printer, as mentioned above, it’s also worth noting that not all printers are built the same. Paying the extra money for a reliable brand like HP or Canon, and within that paying the extra money for a higher-end equivalent, you’ll be doing yourself a favour. Remember, in the office everything we do is about productivity, and saving money on a device that will take twice as long to complete any tasks leads to your business making a net loss in the long run. Rather spend that little extra to get just what you need.

Final thought: can we all agree to do away with faxes, please? Please? Thanks.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

When it comes to buying a good printer, a lot of people don’t know whether to buy a laser printer or an inkjet printer. Both printers come with their pros and cons, but at the end of the day the smart buyer should make their choice based on what they’ll be using the printer for.

Ink printing

Inkjet printers, though mostly being priced better than their laser counterparts, require frequent ink cartridge replacement which doesn’t come cheap. The printers are perfect for the buyer who intends to use the device at home, only printing a few documents now and then. In the home environment, printers which use ink rather than laser will also save space and are generally smaller than their laser powered counterparts. Though it currently looks like the laser is mightier than ink in this case, where the ink-powered printer excels is when it comes to printing photos. There are also even specially developed ink cartridges for use in photo-printing labs. Printers like the Epson Stylus Photo P50 live up to all the advantages which have been listed above and this model goes for £64, making it an awesome budget buy.

How the laser fares

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Laser printers have been scooped the ‘King of the printers’ seat, and are renowned for being able to print high volumes, very quickly. The cartridges used in laser-powered printers last longer than ink cartridges and offer lower printing costs relative to the amount of work they can produce. The quality of the text and images is also better when using a laser-powered printer, but one of the big cons is that the printers are rather costly. The entry-level Epson AcuLaser C1600 costs double the price of the Epson Stylus Photo P50, at a bit under £134, but then again can also produce close to double the work in half the time.

From this it should be clear that those looking for a printer that can do a lot of work and similarly keep costs low should go for a laser printer. Those just looking for ordinary printer to do odd printing jobs here and then should purchase an inkjet printer. Head to head, the laser is definitely mightier than ink and costs less in the long run, too.