The widely speculated end of the printed page appears to be a bit premature. While the worldwide page volume continued its slow decline, the world continues to print at a healthy clip. According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide page volumes from digital hardcopy devices decreased to 2.98 trillion in 2012 from 3.03 trillion in 2011, a decline of -1.5 percent year over year.* IDC expects worldwide page volumes to remain flat for the 2013-2017 forecast period.
With mobile printing technology continuing to grow, print volumes will likely be boosted by mobile device users. Smartphone and tablet users now have the capability of printing from their mobile devices, which will only feed our need to print. While many are not yet taking advantage of this capability (50 percent of smartphone users and 35 percent of tablet users revealed they do not know how to print from their mobile devices), this will increase as users learn how to take advantage of this technology. According to IDC, more than 50 percent of smartphone and tablet users are expected to utilize mobile printing in the office in 2015.