New market research forecasts strong color device and consumables sales through 2011.

According to new estimates from industry researcher InfoTrends, 2008 will be part of a sustained five-year upswing in the U.S. color market. Total U.S. print volumes will grow from 307.63 billion in 2006 to 763.59 billion impressions in 2011. Monochrome volumes are expected to drop in the same period, from 1453.01 billion to 1045.14 billion.

InfoTrends attributed the continuing rise in color output to the increasing number of companies that use in-house color printers and multifunction products (MFPs) for marketing materials and business documents. The researcher added that decreasing acquisition costs are spurring purchases of the devices.

"Color MFPs make up the largest and fastest growing segment right now, and because of this we are seeing a substantial shift both in the consolidation of capabilities and also in the shift to color capable devices," says Todd Gregory, marketing manager for global enterprise business in Hewlett-Packard's Imaging and Printing Group. He adds that MFP demand will continue to accelerate across all business segments from enterprises to SMBs.

The InfoTrends report also forecasts that the retail value of color electro-photographic consumables will grow to $13.2 billion in 2011, up from $4.5 billion in 2006, as monochrome laser consumables decrease from $10.2 billion to about $7.3 billion.

"The market is still keyed into the acquisition price more than the running costs, even though [end users] ultimately spend more money on the running costs," says David Bates, vice president of product marketing for the Xerox Office Group.

"There is an increasing understanding that color is important because it's another element of communication," Bates adds. "For example, I print my Outlook calendar in color so I don't have to read any words. The blue line on the side of my calendar means one thing, and a purple line means something else. If I printed it all in monochrome, I'd just lose all that information."

Gregory says that the increases in color hardware and consumables signal a growing comfort level among business and IT managers that the resources can be controlled adequately against abuse in the form of unnecessary print jobs or non-business use.

"The moment customers say they are looking at a consolidated device that's color capable it's almost guaranteed the very next question will be, 'What is [available] to help us manage, track, monitor, and control the use of color?'" he says. "That said, it's my experience that most companies are not actively enabling color restrictions. They all want to know the tools are there and they all want the peace of mind knowing that they can control usage."

The growth trends mean color-capable printers and MFPs will continue to be strong sellers for solution providers, analysts say. But to distinguish their products against growing competition, OEMs and their channel partners will offer new types of ancillary features on the devices they sell. This includes hardware with more finishing options and the ability to handle a wider range of paper types. "We continue to expand our ecosystem of solution partners to be able to support different types of vertical printing solutions and requirements," Gregory says.