The paperless office is back again! (But only because print hardware supplies are jammed)

The Paperless Office strategy might be working finally ... but only because print vendors can't make enough hardware to satisfy demand. Unit sales of inkjet and laser printers fell collectively by 21.5 per cent year on year to 4.07 million units in calendar Q3, according to stats compiled by IDC – that is 1.12 million fewer …

[nematoad]

Maybe not.

"Some 450 billion fewer pages were printed in 2020..."

It couldn't have something to do with all the problems Microsoft are having sorting out the Windows printing problems could it?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Maybe not.

Not the fact that you're working at home and having to use your own printer and your own 'gasp' ink ?

[Anonymous Coward]

A printer upgrade?

Maybe we can update Zoom and Teams to provide virtual printing services so that we can eliminate printers completely? This would fix all of the current printer issues. Is this a joke, or would it be a joke?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: A printer upgrade?

Like integrating Powerpoint into Teams and Zoom with desktop sharing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A printer upgrade?

A "print to my tablet" function where the page slowly appears on such device, completed with inkjet sounds? Of course waiting for the Metaverse and its virtual printers printing on virtual paper.

[Old Used Programmer]

Maybe not the usual reason...

Hmmm... My printing was way down in 2020. But that's because it became obvious early on that the gaming convention a group of us run wasn't going to happen in 2021, so I wound up NOT printing data on all the membership registrations that didn't come in. Probably cut the amount of printing I do by somewhere between 50% and 80%.

[cornetman]

Re: Maybe not the usual reason...

Same here. I have a colour copier in the basement for printing concert programmes and other flyers and it has been completely silent for the past year and a half, what with our usual band group not being able to rehearse or publicly perform.

I suspect a lot of people are in that situation.

[Steve Button]

Going the same way as the fax machine.

I used to print stuff all the time, but nowadays (well, pre 2020) it might take me three months working in an office to even bother to connect to the printer, if at all. Screens have become good enough that it's hardly worth it. The occasional architecture diagram on A3, or something that I want to read when 'offline'.

So, really we already have the "paperless" office, compared to how things were in the '90s and naughties?

We used to send off IBM Redbook PDFs to the print shop and very handy they were too. Just no need any more.

Of course they will never die out completely, but I suspect many will manage without them. (although they will live on longer than the fax - will probably never completely go away).

[the spectacularly refined chap]

Re: Going the same way as the fax machine.

Depends a lot on the context for me. Routine stuff at your usual desk, sure, that's what a second or third monitor is for, especially when a lot of the stuff you would want to refer to originates electronically.

On the move - still use a lot of paper. I am moving more towards laptop and tablet now but not exclusively by any means. Or for actual thinking time - e.g. code review or bug hunting. Take a code listing and/or schematic down the pub with pencile and paper and spend the time to work the issue. Scribbling on paper is still best for things like that, computers are a positive distraction.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Going the same way as the fax machine.

Most offices I've worked in stopped most of their printing in the early 90s. We've still got printers but ours is inactive most days.

[katrinab]

Re: Going the same way as the fax machine.

I prefer iPad + Apple Pencil for that, mainly because it is easier to find my scribblings later.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Going the same way as the fax machine.

I have a job coming up shortly that involves connecting a fax machine to a VoIP system.

They're almost gone, but some people still cling on to them.

[Binraider]

Rage against the machine never specified the machine they were angry at. I assume, a printer?

[MortyCapp]

no insights on demand in the IDC stats

IDC records and estimates shipments (out of factory). It does not provide insights on demand.

This means that we do not know if there is an "unsatisfied demand", or how large that would be.

Vendors would know what they have on back orders though.

The bigger question is, if IDC is right and thinks the supply chain issues will last well into 2022, by then the DX projects and Hybrid workplace would also have impacted what is future demand.

-20% shipments is terrible compared to the already bad 2020.

We can expect further rounds of layoffs and price increases.

As well as serious existential headaches for the channel.

[JamesTGrant]

Who would read it?

I guess that some businesses need hard copy for reasons, so the poor person WFH that gets to take the folders home would be printing a lot.

But everyone else WFH - who is going to read what is printed? I thought most school homework was submitted electronically, and I’m sure most kids aren’t organised such that their work flow includes sending e-mail to parent at work to print out their homework.

So, the difference left is mortgage applications that people used to print at the office once every two years. That’s a lot of printers at home doing not very much for most of the time apart from that, I don’t understand who would be reading all the home printed output which would otherwise be printed at the office, perhaps folk proof reading before sending electronically?