This document looks at the Western European hardcopy market in relation to the current economic climate and developments that are taking place in the hardcopy industry.

"The degree of economic uncertainty seen in today's markets should be seized upon by many vendors to actually encourage potential customers to invest in cost saving print initiatives. It's been said many times that print is one of the last areas that companies look at in order to save expenditure, and opportunities for savings have never been greater. Companies will continue to print a certain number of pages and therefore it makes simple sense to take advantage of supplier offerings to reduce their costs. These solutions do not have to be complicated or expensive and in some cases the customers do not have to provide investment up-front. Therefore the customer can only gain," said Phil Sargeant, research manager, European Hardware Devices and Document Solutions.