IDC MarketScape, well-renowned as a premier vendor assessment tool in the ICT industry, providing comprehensive evaluations of technology vendors based on rigorous methodologies, has recently named both Ricoh and Konica Minolta as Leaders in High Speed Inkjet.
The IDC MarketScape employs a rigorous scoring methodology that evaluates vendors based on two main axes: Capabilities and Strategies. This approach allows for a balanced view of each vendor's strengths and weaknesses. The results are visually represented in a graphical format, categorising vendors into four segments: Leaders, Major Players, Contenders, and Participants. The size of the vendor's bubble in the graph indicates their market share, providing a clear visual representation of their competitive position.
Ricoh
Ricoh has been positioned for the third time to the Leaders Category in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide High-Speed Inkjet 2025 Vendor Assessment and the report highlights ‘Ricoh’s global reach with proven reliability, strong technical service, and consistent investment in innovation - pushing advances in printhead accuracy, job automation, and sustainability features’. The report went on to acknowledge that Ricoh also has a strong complementary portfolio of toner-based presses’.
Tim Greene, Research Director at IDC, says: “Ricoh is very strong in some of the key areas that customers are looking for in a partnership such as equipment capabilities from advanced print head and drying technologies to service and support. We found that the company combines innovation, performance, and execution, and supports customers in their high speed inkjet initiatives.”
Koji Miyao, President, Ricoh Graphic Communications & Senior Corporate Officer, Ricoh Company, Ltd., says: “We are focused on enabling clients to best position their operations to successfully manage the developing print production landscape. Our services, solutions, and own-developed technologies are expertly shaped for each operation in response to their individual needs. We collaborate and co-innovate every step of the way to support clients as they evolve their operations, expand their services, and grow their business.”
Konica Minolta
Also announcing Konica Minolta as a Leader in the same category, the report states that: ‘Konica Minolta has built an impressive portfolio and a road map for future products that offer very high levels of productivity and print quality based on the company's extensive inkjet technology’, also noting that Konica Minolta has achieved ‘significant success and progress since the last iteration of this IDC MarketScape’.
The report states that: ‘the company has continued to evolve both its high-speed cutsheet inkjet solutions and its adjacent portfolio with toner-based products for the document and label printing markets’ and urges customers to ‘consider Konica Minolta, particularly if your business seeks high levels of image quality and productivity, versatility across offset and specialty substrates and robust support for short- and mid-run commercial, packaging or specialty print production in a globally serviced, automated solution’.
Frank Mallozzi, who leads Konica Minolta’s industrial print channel, says: “We believe being named a Leader in this IDC MarketScape is a strong validation of our commitment to advancing inkjet innovation to meet evolving client needs. As customers navigate rising material costs, labour challenges and growing demand for automation, we remain focused on delivering solutions that provide the reliability, productivity and flexibility they need to operate with confidence. Our continued investments in productivity, substrate versatility and automation ensure they are well-positioned to capitalise on the industry’s accelerating shift toward high-speed digital production.”
According to insights from the IDC MarketScape Worldwide High-Speed Inkjet 2025 Vendor Assessment, the high-speed inkjet market is a segment of the production printing business that ‘holds a lot of promise, but in some ways, the technology is ahead of demand’. The report notes that ‘speeds of these high-speed inkjet systems continue to increase as improved inkjet printheads, ink and drying technologies come online and IDC sees that equipment manufacturers continue to innovate on all fronts to improve the quality available from high-speed inkjet presses, even as they improve the economics of digital printing and make presses easier to operate’.
