Should you trade in your press like you trade in your phone?

I am not someone who needs to be the first kid on the block with a new gadget (although I do like to be among the first to learn about them!) My 2022 smartphone upgrade was made because I needed a more competitive camera to shoot video for Inkjet Insight. Otherwise, if my phone didn't glitch, I wouldn't replace it. I may be in the minority.

In 2018, the average person in the U.S. replaced their smartphone after 3 years or less and the replacement cycle length has shortened in every year since (see chart below.) There are also a lot of people who are replacing their phones more frequently than the average.

Should you trade in your press like you trade in your phone? Or should we treat phone trade-ins more like presses?

What's different about inkjet "trade-ins"

• While most phone OEMs and their service partners push net new phone sales, many press OEMs have excellent "field upgrade" programs where many new feature introductions can be added to existing presses (HP is particularly strong in this area.) Wouldn't it be nice if you could do that will your phone?
• There is more similarity in refurbished phones and presses. Counterpoint Research’s Global Refurb Smartphone Tracker showed that in 2022 worldwide sales of new smartphones dropped by 12% while refurbished sales grew by 5%. In the press world, refurbished sales reached 20% of overall sales in 2021 with new engine sales recovering from a dip during COVID and creeping back up to 2016 levels by 2027 according to I.T. Strategies.
• Presses, theoretically, have a much longer potential lifespan (and dramatically higher price) than phones* so OEMs have to offer truly compelling new capabilities to convince a company to trade up.

If you are serving the graphic arts printing market segment, then compelling upgrades is exactly what you have been seeing. Some (partially) available as field upgrades and others that would require a complete trade-in, or adding an additional press to the fleet.

Lois Ritarossi spoke to executives from 4 companies who evaluated inkjet and surrounding technology at the March Hunkeler event to see what is driving investment. You can read about it, or watch the video.

If you want to get a peek at what people are actually buying, you can check out the April Installation Roundup to see what 19 companies have invested in recently. We add to our list each month and provide commentary on the trends we are seeing. This is usually premium content for our subscribers, but we are leaving this one open (free!) for everyone so you can see what you are missing every month. We generally try to do a mid-year catch up and look back, so stay tuned for that.

One other thing different about phones and presses is that I know a lot of people are building or customizing new types of presses, but I'm not aware of anyone (cost effectively) building their own smart phone. Mary Schilling knows a lot about developing new presses, particularly about helping achieve substrate compatibility and print quality. Since we have seen a lot of growth in bespoke inkjet, she has shared some guidelines on thinking about all of the pieces in the development process that impact color and print quality. She says that "Great color doesn't happen by accident."

If you are looking at expanding your print capabilities, make sure to look at all the options. You could buy new, field upgrade, buy refurbished or develop a customized solution. And next time you think about upgrading your phone, consider that you could buy a refurbished version of last year's model for a fraction of the price of a new one and keep another product out of the landfill. Less trash and more cash - words to live by.

Elizabeth

* According to BankMyCell.com, Apple iPhone models generally last much longer (4-10 years) than most other smartphones, which typically only last 2 to 4 years. So why do people trade up so fast?