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North American Digital Imaging Scanner Market Overview and Outlook

Introduction

The scanner market is evolving at a rapid pace. The traditional centralized scanning model is facing the ever-growing demand for distributed scanning options.
InfoTrends’ report entitled North American Document Imaging Scanner Forecast: 2005-2010 is available for purchase immediately. The forecast examines the trends and issues that are impacting the document scanner market in North America. It provides a review of the market in terms of each scanner segment, including vendor profiles and their rankings in each category.

The report also contains detailed forecast information with breakouts for shipments, revenues, and features such as color, duplex, interface type, flatbed and sheetfed form factors, and A3 and A4 bed sizes.

Market Overview

According to the report, shipments of document-class scanners have grown at a rate of over 50% for the third straight year.

Figure 1: North American Document Imaging
Scanner Shipment Totals

Workgroup scanners represent the largest segment of the market, with shipments rising 75% between 2004 and 2005. Departmental scanners are also beginning to see some impressive growth due to lower price points and innovative features. Nevertheless, this segment does face serious potential challenges from increased feature sets in the Workgroup segment as well as improving multifunctional peripheral (MFP) solutions.

There are many factors driving the market for scanning solutions, including compliance, a trend towards distributed scanning, and increasing demand from specific industries. The companies that develop the most innovative solutions at attractive price points will be the ones best positioned to excel in this market.

Increasing Competition

There has been continual interest in MFPs and how they compete against single-function document scanners. In the past, InfoTrends has cited several advantages that standalone scanners offer in relation to MFPs. This continues to be the case, and dedicated scanners offer the following benefits:

• Price
• Usage
• Scan Quality
• Paper Handling
• Scan “to” Functionality

At the same time, the extent to which potential customers are aware of these advantages is unclear. For example, InfoTrends’ recent multi-client study entitled Delivering Scanning Technologies to the Corporate Market found that over 60% of single-function scanner resellers believed that business users would agree with the statement, “Many business users believe that MFPs and/or digital copiers are equally as capable as single-function scanners for most scanning needs.”

This speaks to a need for scanner vendors to increase awareness about these differences through marketing and market education. There is plenty of room for both types of devices to thrive in the office environment. The key is ensuring that potential customers understand the many cases where a single-function scanner would be the best option.

The preceding is an excerpt from InfoTrends’ report entitled “North American Document Imaging Scanner Forecast: 2005-2010.” The complete document is available immediately. To learn more about the report or to make a purchase, visit our online store or contact Nicole Shown at +1 , ext. 207 or .

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