No longer just printing

Having identified a number of established ‘compatibles’ suppliers in China, Fewtrell quickly identified a local niche and around 18 months ago formed Sydney-based InkXpress, which is fast stamping its mark as a supplier of competitive ink and toner products, undercutting ‘originals’ by between 30 and 40 percent.

The company expects to hit turnover of more than $500,000 this year and recently appointed a sales rep in Melbourne.

InkXpress services a growing number of organisations throughout the corporate and educational environments, which Fewtrell says are more than happy to forgo the assurance of genuine consumables for major cost savings.

For years heavily stigmatised by dodgy backyard operators, compatibles are starting to gain widespread acceptance, even at the big end of town, Fewtrell adds, claiming that much of his business is with banks and other large institutions.

"The first myth to dispel is that originals don’t break or go wrong -- that stigma of the old compatibles is out of date. This is a multi-billion dollar business."

Although around 10 percent of all consumables sold in Australia are compatibles, Fewtrell expects this to increase substantially to refl ect other markets such as the UK where the proportion is around 50 percent.

He has also geared his business to appeal to the philanthropical leanings of customers, by giving 10 percent of ex-tax sales to their charity of choice.

HP's O'Flaherty: Resellers ignore annuity sales

Looking at the consumer market, while colour multi-function products continue to sell like hot cakes, the rising flood of digital cameras is fuelling what was recently an entirely new market segment: photo-printers.

Not only are they appealing for their convenience, but these products have, in relatively short space of time, managed to surpass the quality and durability of traditional prints.

"In the consumer segment the standout opportunity for us is in home photo printing," says O’Flaherty.

HP forecasts that home photo printing will increase by 62 percent or 15 billion photos printed per year over the next three years. Driving the market, it believes, are increasing numbers of digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs and other handheld devices capable of capturing and storing images.

HP expects that PCs will eventually become unnecessary for digital printing with products like its HP Photosmart all-in-one printer, which provide sophisticated on-board editing capabilities.

HP now claims that users can produce a photo-lab quality 6x4 print for only 50 cents, or an A4 size print for $2.50 as opposed to the professional lab price of $8.00.

Epson sees a big future in this segment too, and has likewise moved to offer printers producing only the standard 6x4 sized prints.

"We’re seeing that area grow quite dramatically," says Epson’s Pleasants. He adds that there is a dramatically better life span for digital copy paper with most digital photos now of better quality than traditional silver halide. "The growth in digital cameras has driven inkjet printing at home to new heights."

And for consumers themselves, as HP’s O’Flaherty puts it, "Who would have thought that you could hold a kid’s birthday party in a park and give all the kids studio quality photos at the end of the party in their show bags -- and the image can last for more than 100 years!"