Change is “to make something different, to alter, modify, or replace.” That’s what Merriam-Webster says. For me, it’s more than that. Maybe it’s through having a partner who is also a counselor and psychotherapist that I have learned that change is something to be embraced. The end of one chapter usually becomes the start of another.
These days, change is happening faster than ever. If you had told me two years ago that we would endure a global pandemic, the booming cruising industry would stop sailing, or that hardware manufacturers would be helping customers to use supplies without chips in their copiers, I would not have believed you.
For those of you who have not been engaged with the European document, wide format, or commercial printing markets, please let me introduce myself. I’m Peter Mayhew, a mature market analyst with a career founded in the imaging industry and now a part of the distinguished team of analysts at Keypoint Intelligence. I started my working life as a photographer and went on to manage a photo lab. I’ve endured the industry’s continuing transition from analog to digital from a wide format printing market perspective and written white papers on inkjet printing technology and markets.
I am enjoying a career which—as an independent industry analyst since 2008—has allowed me to deliver a wide range of projects from home printing with ink tank-based MFPs and business inkjet to industrial, production level machinery for packaging applications and across into raster image processing software engineering. I have also maintained and sold copiers from when they ran on wet photographic chemicals.
Most recently, I have been studying the environmental and sustainability challenges facing the media and marking segments of home and office printing. You may have listened to me at conferences, in podcasts, or read my insights and opinions in trade magazines as I discuss this interesting subject area.
Change for Keypoint Intelligence
Coming into my new role at Keypoint Intelligence, there’s change here as well. John Shane, an industry veteran and stalwart, is retiring. John has been the mindset of Keypoint Intelligence’s supplies insights for many years. Manufacturers and partners around the world have come to rely on his views and opinions to guide their strategic and tactical plans and investments. John should be proud of the work he has done, providing a roadmap for businesses through digital erosion. However, John tells me he is ready for change and it is happening now.
Following another analyst with the deep knowledge and ability of John will not be easy, especially as the industry faces dramatic changes in the home and work environments. I hope to be able to maintain continuity and baseline as a different analytical perspective of industry change emerges from the assumptions deep in the pivot tables of the Integrated Supplies Forecast. A perspective that may, unpalatably, not be aligned to previous thinking or expectations. Reassuringly, John and I are of the same mindset on the assumptions underlying the Supplies Forecast and the thought processes on which they are based.
Change in the Market
But the world has changed and continues to do so—and quickly! Print-as-a-Service is an accelerating phenomenon in the home. Hybrid working is rapidly becoming an expectation of many office workers. If business inkjet is to change the market landscape, then its time is now. The question is, will the aftermarket overcome negative connotations to exploit new rights and sustainable intentions and significantly grow its share?
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| Keypoint Intelligence EU-5 Monthly Home & Office NET Print Volume Adjusted for COVID-19 (September 2021) |
Keypoint Intelligence’s chart illustrating the impact of COVID on page volume has been used by the industry worldwide as a barometer of change. But the pandemic is only part of the change story as we look towards the end of the more usual multi-year, forecast period. Moving forward, I will be working alongside Keypoint analysts to understand what the supplies parts of the industry will look like over the coming years.
I like to weigh evidence, to be assured I have fully completed my research, and to know that the research I am reliant upon is thorough. I also recognize that change happens, I cannot always control it, and that I need a healthy relationship with change to move forward. I hope you will join me on this journey as we write the next chapter for the printing supplies industry together.
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