Top Ten MFP & Imaging Industry Predictions for 2016

Sorry for being the bearer of gloom & doom, but I think Czech is either being either overly-optimistic or things in the Great White North are just different than in the Southwest USA.  Here are my predictions:

1. Lease volume trends based on UCC filings from EDA show that 2015 placements have fallen by over 13,600 since 2013 (almost 10%) & are now at levels nearly equal to 2009 & 2010.  Faced with increased competition for fewer units running less volume due to digitization, dealers & direct operations drastically reduce personnel in Field Sales & Service.  Dealers that plan to be around beyond the careers of their current ownership will shift more attention & resources to software sales & enter additional lines of business and technology consulting.  Dealers that intend to sellout when the time comes for ownership to retire will make the most drastic overhead cuts in order to maintain profit margins while going to market with more aggressive pricing in order to compete with the new generation of "mega-dealers".  The aggressive pricing & resulting commission reductions take their tolls on veteran reps who start exiting the industry for greener pastures with more upside.
2. Konica Minolta & their AllCovered subsidiary will aggressively start cross-selling to one another's customer bases.  If you have a copier or MPS account that outsources some component of IT to AllCovered, beware.  The same is likely on the horizon for Ricoh and mindShift.  Rules of engagement be damned if they manage the infrastructure.
3. Samsung acquires Nuance, starting a ripple effect across the imaging & mobile device landscapes. Dealers are moving to sell more of what they refer to as "solutions" (I hate that term), & Samsung positions itself to profit every time a dealer or direct operation sells AutoStore, Equitrac, eCopy, Copitrak, et al. Plus, it would really piss off Apple to have Samsung getting a piece of their precious Siri.  They may even make certain products exclusive to their Samsung Dealer Channel, but they will not open direct offices yet.  They are being too successful growing via the dealer channel, & it doesn't make sense until that growth has reached its peak.  
4. Lexmark continues buying up software companies & begins making their applications compatible with running on other manufacturers' systems, broadening their reach and increasing their market potential. The transition to a software company continues.
5. Ricoh finally eliminates at least one of the Lanier or Savin brands and reduces the number of authorized dealers in the process.  Dealers who are multi-line & have drastically reduced their purchases with Ricoh in favor of marketing other product lines will have their licenses pulled.  

Nice! I would like to contribute a few of my own predictions as well:

1. Xerox will sell its MFP division to focus entirely on production equipment and business services.
2. Toshiba Tec will not sell nor merge with Sharp. Toshiba is too much of a powerhouse in North America alone.
3. Konica Minolta will continue opening up direct branches due to the rapid growth of their brand. These branches will quickly fall apart when they realize that the dealer model is more profitable.
4. Samsung will start opening up direct branches in North America as part of a massive campaign to grow their base. Their brand and Android apps are aimed at the Gen Y's who are beginning to take executive positions. Unlike Konica Minolta, Samsung has enough cash to maintain these branches. Hiring fresh grads to market your products via cold calling is cheaper and more effective than advertising. Sales reps salaries are now funded by marketing.
5. Managed Services providers and copier dealers who partnered up within the past 12 to 36 months will begin to split up. It's an imperfect marriage. A copier rep will always be a copier rep. We want to sell boxes, not services.
6. HP will stop manufacturing laser MFP's and SFP's. They will launch a brilliant marketing campaign backed by statistics from Gartner "proving" that inkjet is more cost-efficient and sustainable for businesses.
7. As more and more smaller dealers get bought out by larger dealers (nice prediction Art, I 100% agree!) and as more direct branches close, copier reps that are still around will be given more base accounts and have less competition. The result is more sales and more profit in each deal. Yay! The good sales people that stick around will start making a lot more money, equal to pre-2008 recession days.
8. Dealer principals will consider giving their top sales reps a percentage of the service revenue, but then laugh it off and realize what a silly thought that was. Old school will always be old school.
9. Konica Minolta will purchase Muratec. KM is very particular about their brand right now. Just look at all the confusion that happened with Savin/Lanier/Ricoh.
10. Retina or Thumb Print security will finally be released as a ground-breaking feature. A couple commercial businesses will buy into it, but most will still just want print/copy/scan/fax and will end up purchasing something off-lease.
11. (BONUS) Dealers will get smart and realize it's cheaper to throw a free fax machine into the deal than configuring an MFP with a $700 fax board.