| By :
Jennifer Robinson
With the slow recovery, many copier manufacturers face a third quarter of below target sales of photocopiers. This is leaves consumers playing a game of cat and mouse with copier companies on price. With manufacturer competition between Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta prices look set to come down. Forecasted price increases look to be off the a long way off with photocopier sales flatlining companies are in no mood to pay more money for their digital copiers. Manufacturers have claimed that a weak euro,dollar and pound against the yen would mean price increases. However, with copier manufacture coming from the Far East and the manufacture markup of a photocopier still very generous, copier retailers are having to absorb the cost. Online Connect UK say "Photocopiers are still very overpriced when you compare them to laser printers or fax machines where competition has forced prices down." Manufacturers are looking to recover from falls in respective currency but have been forced to considered the market as a whole. In an already difficult market where many businesses are struggling to make ends meet it is clearly not the right time to talk about price increases. Often stories like this are leaked to encourage panic buying, 'buy now before the manufacturer puts up the price'. Some manufacturers, like Canon, are looking to establish themselves again in the market place. With Ricoh making major purchases of dealers it has left them somewhat out in the cold. So could there be a price war on photocopiers? Online Connect say there can be, internet companies like Online Connect have been instrumental in bringing prices of digital copiers down to the consumer. What we haven't seen yet is a price war amongst the brands themselves. During lean times customers and photocopier dealers can extend existing rental agreements to get by. Not so with manufacturers who need to shift boxes. The photocopier is, lets face it, not the most desirable thing in the office so when it comes to replacement it is fairly low down the shopping list. Manufacturers are having to realise that companies see the digital photocopier ever increasingly as a neccessary evil rather than a important asset in their business. In difficult trading times office buyers are holding back on purchasing photocopiers with budgets stretched and funds needed for procurement elsewhere. Where companies have chosen to replace and take out a new lease finance companies have shyed away from many contracts. With the economic slow down many leasing companies have become far more selective about who they will give finance too leaving copier dealers pulling their hair out. It is not just the priority of the photocopier in the office that has changed either, but buying habits have also changed. The office buyer is far more informed than in the past and can gain copier quotations from there computer and let suppliers compete for their business. With photocopier sales at a near all time low it seems photocopier manufacturers will need to do something quite dramatic on price to get consumers to start buying again. With new manufacturers like Samsung now selling digital copiers and the internet driving prices down things look brighter for the photocopier consumer.
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