A4, MFP Shift Accelerates In Offices

Already underway for years, two major transitions in the office print market—toward A4 and multifunction devices—are set to accelerate as office usage returns this year, Kmetz said. That means a faster shift away from single-function printers and away from A3 copiers. “The A3 to A4 transition, I think that gets accelerated” as businesses seek “lower-cost, smaller devices,” Kmetz said. “But you’re still going to have some of the robust capabilities you’d expect from an A3 device—the duty cycle, the finishing and so forth. That’s a trend that we’re watching for coming out of this.”

Likewise, businesses will be even more likely to choose multifunction devices—which bring together functionality including printing, copying, scanning and faxing—over single-function printers going forward, Kmetz said. Multifunction devices generally offer greater management efficiencies and reduced costs by combining so many capabilities into a single device.