TREND	COMMENTS
Single Function     To Multifunction	This is a continuing trend that started to be significant several years ago, and was forecasted as a significant trend in 1993 when the MFPA was formed. We now see the overall volumes of single-function machines starting to decline and much of this volume is moving to the MFP category. In the near future, we may see nearly all machines boasting of multifunction capabilities.
Dialup PSTN Fax     To Internet Fax	Various standards and initiatives are in process to move the world from pay-per-call dial-up PSTN fax connections to Internet-based fax, allowing virtually free transmission of hardcopy documents worldwide. There is a huge opportunity here to leverage the existing installed-based of conventional facimile devices (those based on the ITU-T T.30 set of recommendations, AKA "Group 3") from Internet sources. There is still a great deal of life left in conventional fax, and although we see forecasters continuing to show conventional fax as reaching it's peak and beginning a decline, this has been forecasted for some time, and will probably be wrong again. The lastest standards affecting this area are T.37 which sends the fax message via email, T.38 that lets fax machines tunnel through the Internet to reach another machine, such that operation is much like the machines of today (called "real-time"), and the IPP-FAX initiative that will treat the destination as a printer. There is also the ENUM initiative in IETF that allows urls and various equipment to be linked to a conventional telephone number, thereby making it easy to enter using a conventional facsimile keypad. With the introduction of facsimile gateways, we may see the conventional fax machine around for some time to come, perhaps with some minor improvements to facilitate connection through the Internet.
1284     To USB/1394/10-100 BaseT	For years, the primary connection to printers was the simple "Centronics" port. This ranged across the map and was simplified and reached more defacto standardization through implementation of the IBM-PC platform. The IEEE-1284 standard went further to standardize this interface, and eventually to introduce a packetized protocol based on the HP implementation ("MLC") so that more than one logical connection could be maintained across the single physical channel. This resulted in the IEEE-1284.4 standard which is popular today. This particular issue, the lack of multiple logical channels was a major roadblock to the implementation of MFP products. It prompted the MFPA to draft the MFPI standard in association with the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). With the popularity of HP equipment and their protocol introduced for standardization, this eliminated the need for MFPI and it was withdrawn from consideration by the MFPA during those early IEEE-1284.4 committee meetings. In spite of these great developments in extending and improving the port using the DB-25/9 (25-pin or 9-pin) connector found on most PCs for years, newer, better, faster interfaces have started deployment, all of which provide the multiple logical channels and many other improvements as well. The use of direct 10/100 BaseT connectivity to the network is another important direction, turning the MFP into a network appliance rather than a desktop peripheral. This trend will continue, with the 1284.4 interface declining to obsolesence. The jury is still out on the eventual winner or loser amongst the other interfaces, with each having it's good and bad points. Wireless wasn't mentioned here as it is treated below, but it is also a very important alternative.
Cables     To Wireless	Don't miss this trend! It is huge and growing as several standards reach deployment and costs are dropping dramatically. The "Bluetooth" standard which is primarily a local-cable replacement standard is great for the elimination of desktop cabling altogether. The formal standards, IEEE 802.11 and 802.15 and their variants are the primary forces at work, providing "Personal Area Networks" (PANs) as well as Local Area Network (LAN) functionality. There are new opportunities to embed wireless hubs in MFP products to make them more of a platform rather than just a peripheral, and be the gateway or proxy to the raw Internet.
Driver Oriented     To Driverless Oriented	The printer world has been unique in that its operating system interface, the beloved or hated "Printer Driver" is highly coupled to the operating system, and allows the MFP manufacturer to add value by integrating proprietary code at this level. The drawback is a never-ending requirement to keep up with OS releases and versions. Now, we see some light at the end of the tunnel in the form of standard PDL concepts to make the use of a standard driver possible. This is being discussed by the uPnP group, and hopefully will bear fruit. If we can eliminate the driver, then the equipment will be much easier to install and support.
Local Connectivity     To Global Connectivity	In the recent past, if someone said "remote printer" they meant the one down the hall and not on their desk. Increasingly, "remote" means any where on the planet. As a result, protocols such as IPP, which are probably mostly tailored for intranet application are being applied to the global internet.
Proprietary & Licensed     To Open & Free	This year, the concept of embedding Linux or other variants of UNIX have reached a point where they can successfully compete with proprietary OS's that require royalty licensing. With the price point of these machines not allowing much margin, trimming these sort of back-end expenses is essential. With the popularity of Linux ramping rapidly, it provides a great deal of support and is reliable and relatively lightweight. This trend is also affecting the desktop to a lesser degree as users begin to utilize Linux as an alternative to Microsoft Windows.
Static Architectures     To Scalable Architectures	The investment in RIP and controller design can be substantial, and it is important that these designs can be easily scaled for lower-end products to high-end products without a complete design cycle. Adding more DSP chips to increase graphics throughput is one important strategy in this category. This trend becomes more important as global connectivity becomees a factor and usage may become significantly higher for certain services.
Rare Color     To Ubiquitous & Free Color	MFP devices of the past were predominantly black & white printers, scanners and fax. Color printers are very prevalent especially in the ink-jet technology category. Color scanners add very little to the cost and are essential as images are scanned for viewing on the web as well as hardcopy. With Color Fax now a reality, we see MFPs that are completely color, and with pricetags that are nearly equal to non-color equivalents, with manufacturers making up the difference with higher consumables revenues. Soon, nearly all equipment will be color capable.
User Centric     To Workflow Enabled	Manufacturers of MFP and office equipment see that elegant integration with workflow technologies can make their equipment a good citizen instead of a workflow bottleneck. Integration of functions in the equipment allow some workflow segments to be wholly implemented in the equipment and between the equipment on the global internet using D2D (device to device) methodologies.
Desktop Oriented     To Web Oriented	In the recent past, all applications ran on a desktop platform, such as Microsoft Windows. Today, a substantial number of applications are web-based, running on servers and utilizing the desktop browser as the interface to these programs. It seems that every desktop-based application has a web-based counterpart, and in some cases, breaking the barrier of the desktop unleashes a huge number of opportunities. We hear that Microsoft is now going to be releasing software and updating it using the web as a response to this trend. It is not apparent that this trend has any real limits in how much of the desktop space it will consume.
Local Scanning     To Network Scanning++	The scanner is customarily tightly coupled to an associated workstation where a user interacts with a scanning application to operate the scanner. Now, sophisticated scanner devices are being introduced that operate on the network and provide document archival, OCR, and other functionality for small businesses and workgroups. Scanners which are part of a larger MFP may provide the same functionality as well as printing, copying, and internet/PSTN facsimile.
PC+Peripherals     To Network Appliances	We see a trend moving away from a PC-centric world to one where the devices exist as peers on a network which is likely part of the larger Internet. Appliances are designed to be application-specific instead of based on a general-purpose PC computer platform. Areas such as entertainment, where TV has been king, we now see application-specific gaming systems which are connected to the Internet for interactive global game scenarios with real-time interaction amongst disparate players. We see web-browsing specific applicances such as the i-opener to allow the unsophisticated user to utilize the Internet. This trend is affecting the office equipment sector as well as the equipment that was customarily treated as a peripheral to the PC is now connected directly to the network.
Peripheral     To Platform	The customary use of a MFP product has been to provide printing, scanning, and fax services to a PC or set of PCs. This list of services may becoming larger as the possibilities arise for the MFP to play an important role as the wireless hub, Internet proxy, firewall, and other functions that may become a convenience factor in homes and Small-Office/Home-Office (SOHO) situations.
Painful Network Maintenance     To Elegant foolproof discovery++	Now that peripherals are becoming network applicances and internet platforms, keeping track of IP addresses on a LAN and configuring all the equipment can be a daunting task. Discovery and configuration management are important elements of this trend to make maintenance of a network effortless, even for the unsophisticated user.