South African businesses will continue requiring printers in the foreseeable future, as paper still trumps digital in various industries and for several use cases., the value of the global printer market is expected to grow from $54.35 billion in 2024 to $67.88 billion by 2029.
However, Brother South Africa’s general manager for sales and marketing, Dale Fourie, told MyBroadband that Q1 2024 had been challenging for printer sales in South Africa, reflecting the general economic conditions. Statista said the demand for multifunction printers in South Africa was steadily increasing due to the country’s growing need for streamlined office operations,There are many reasons why local businesses will continue printing documents in the near future.
“Legal, healthcare, banking and logistics are all corporate industries that will continue printing and then we also have a big small-to-medium business base,” Fourie said. Lastly, several studies have shown that information retention is better when reading text on paper than when reading text on a screen.
Lockdowns and other restrictions saw many companies switch their workers to full-time or part-time remote working, reducing demand for large in-office printers.