September 7, 2006 –The new InfoTrends report, North American Document Imaging Scanner Forecast: 2005-2010, reviews the market in terms of each scanner segment, including vendor profiles and their rankings in each category. The report also contains detailed forecast information with breakouts for shipments, revenues, and features such as color, duplex, interface type, flatbed and sheetfed form factors, and A3 and A4 bed sizes. According to the report, shipments of document-class scanners have grown at a rate of over 50% for the third straight year. Workgroup scanners represent the largest segment of the market, with shipments rising 75% between 2004 and 2005. Departmental scanners are also beginning to see some impressive growth due to lower price points and innovative features. Nevertheless, this segment does face serious potential challenges from increased feature sets in the Workgroup segment as well as improving multifunctional peripheral (MFP) solutions. There has been continual interest in MFPs and how they compete against single-function document scanners. In the past, InfoTrends has cited the advantages that standalone scanners offer in relation to MFPs, including price, usage, scan quality, paper handling, and scan-to functionality. However, the extent to which potential customers are aware of these advantages is unclear. InfoTrends believes that this speaks to a need for scanner vendors to increase awareness about these differences through marketing and market education. There is plenty of room for both types of devices to thrive in the office environment. Download (PDF 65Kb)