It seems like only yesterday Fujitsu introduced the Scansnap scanner series. Actually, it’s been “only 20 years” and counting. Initially introduced as a low cost alternative to the FI series, this line of products has grown into much more over time.
Actually, I would bet that most large installations that Fujitsu has, are for the Scansnap series. To be more precise, large corporations that need decentralized document processing. In non corporate language this means a small scanner on each desk. All this, combined with a wifi scanning capability and users just can’t get enough of these machines.
Why was the Scansnap series created
While Fujitsu won’t really admit it, the Scansnap products were created to satisfy a demand in the low price market. Back then, using such a strategy, especially for a high end brand like Fujitsu, would not have yielded great merits. Still, while this started like that kind of exercise, it ended up in being a very important part of PFU scanner lineup.
Nowadays, the demand for high quality high volume document scanners is very slowly rising. And what we mean by slowly is that it generally should stay relatively flat over time. Why is that happening you might ask ? Well this is happening because stakeholders have realized that in a lot of applications, smaller scanners should be able to do the job just as well.
Not to mention the introduction of Wifi scanning or centralized network scanning. These are gamechangers and let companies and teams do scanning way more easily then they did in the past. With wifi, you can have 10 scanners and no usb cords. This is a great improvement, making implementation very easy and very cheap for just about everyone involved.
Practically you can see how the creation of a cheap product evolved into a product line that really solves some of the problems that users had in the past with larger devices.
What is the future for Scansnap
I would guess the Scansnap series will continue to thrive in the scanner market. There should be newer products coming out, with different features and also various price points. I would expect Fujitsu focusing this series on the smart scanner applications and focusing them on different niche markets. Wifi scanning will continue to be at their core, and this is a point that should never be neglected. When production scanning is not involved, chords should not exist.
I guess the next thing should be batteries and battery powered scanners that last. This is definitely something I see happening in the near future, as everyone seems to want to focus on this aspect. This should allow for remote scanning from just about any place, and uploading data using the wifi on smartphones. We will see what Fujitsu chooses in this sense.
Last but not least, software should be another part of the Scansnap series. Nowadays, Scansnaps are all into basic scanning, standard scanning applications and features that don’t involve complex tasks. You might think Fujitsu is not doing enough into providing more complex scanning features, but I think this is not the market of the future. Complex scanning features are a thing of production scanners, especially the Fi series. With the Paperstream app, the Fi series are good enough to handle really complex tasks.
The focus for Fujitsu is catching the train that involved new age media and new age software. It’s the kind of apps that are in line with the new generation of tech products. I think this could make or break the Fujitsu scansnap in the future.