The rallying call of “print is dying!” is now evident on the African continent as more mainstream newspapers have set up active online platforms.

The document printing business is also being affected with companies embracing paperless systems. But according to Epson, a printing enterprise, companies in the printing industry are also changing with the times but not dumping their print business.

“Nowadays people want to share what they have taken [photos]. Sometimes you take a good picture and email it to your friends. But let’s say you take a picture of your kids you obviously want to print it out and have it somewhere visible,” Mukesh Bector, regional sales manager for East Africa at Espon told ITWeb Africa.

“For that purpose printing is always going to be there,” Bector stated.

This need has seen the company prepare to introduce large printing machines in the East African regions.

Bector also noted that there is growing need of point of sale printing, which is still popular in supermarkets and banks.

“You always have to sign a document. Someone always wants to have a physical document. As much as we are moving to the cloud, there is still a need and requirement for a physical document,” Bector added.

As much as the printing companies feel the pressure of the digital revolution, there is space to merge the two technologies.

Epson has embraced the cloud connectivity through their platform, Epson Connect that enables users to print photos from a mobile device to an Epson printer. Such innovations, Bector said, is a way to merge hard copy printing with the evolving digital solutions.

“Most guys are moving to smartphones,” he admitted. “You have phones with 16 megapixels even 19 megapixels,” which can take decent quality photos and print them from your phone.

“We are doing away with the need to transfer one document from one device to the other,” Bector elaborated.

The developments in Wi-Fi have also allowed innovation in the printing business as most new age printers have Wi-Fi connectivity.

Imaging business vs television

There is major interest in the projector market for business, education and even home entertainment.

Bector says that education sector is growing in acquiring projectors. Second are businesses who would want to mount projectors in their boardrooms.

He stated that it isn’t practical to have a 60 inch television for a classroom environment, while a projector can garner more inches and have a better view.

“Projection is becoming more and more popular,” Bector said. “They are becoming increasingly affordable if you can buy a projector at the same price or lesser price than the TV, some people opt for that.”

Epson is currently looking to enter the home entertainment market with new projectors that will even allow 3D viewing. The only hindrance would be the price.

A good home theatre projector could cost up to $3,000 which is cheaper than new age smart TVs but still out of reach for many. His observation is that more homes are using business made projectors for home entertainment units.

“I don’t think one would replace the other,” Bector asserted to the question of projectors replacing televisions.