Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) will remain as the largest MPS market in the region, cornering over 25 per cent of the market and expanding at a CAGR of 19.3 per cent to 2012. Springboard says that, while India is behind China and ASEAN in overall market size, India is forecast to be the fastest growing market a compound annual growth rate of 22.6 per cent.

"These robust growth figures indicate not just a vibrant MPS marketplace, but they also reflect the emergence of MPS as the best growth bet for the print hardware vendors in the region, who have seen a decline of hardware sales amidst the economic slowdown," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, senior research analyst for services at Springboard Research.

"Enterprises in the region are eager to test and adopt the 'next level' of printing environment, presenting the MPS vendors with a growth opportunity in a difficult economic situation," said Mr. Gogia.

"In addition to the market forecasts, services players need to base their investment decisions by also taking into account the emerging market trends. For instance, while a few vertical industries like banking and finance and telecom have maturing printing demands, a few segments such as retail, are still nascent in their use of managed print offerings."

Higher ROI challenge