IoT payments – preauthorized real time payments triggered by sensors and results of real time data collection continue to gain traction. In a report released earlier this year titled IoT Payments: Taxonomy Driven Market Size and Company Rankings, Mercator cited the smart-ink printer industry as one that is gaining traction in the overall IoT payments market highlighting HP as an innovative company in this space.
At the midst of the pandemic, HP’s 2020 Q2 results noted “Continued strong momentum in Instant Ink with total subscribers surpassing 7M, benefitting from working from home”, in its report, Mercator also noted that as a response to the pandemic “IoT payments may see a boost in adoption as consumer behavior shifts to delivery over in-store shopping”.
Today HP’s Q4 results continue to show “Strong momentum in Home print, including Instant Ink, benefitting from working and learning from home” and more importantly an advancement in HP’s smart ink program (one that allows consumer printers to automatically order ink when running low) called HP+ a “complete printing solution combining hardware, instant ink, and HP SmartApp”. The new solution features a connected cloud, smart security settings, and other features such as “Forest First” where “every page printed is balanced off with investments to help restore forests”.
As part of the broad theme of accelerated IoT projects, driven by a need to connect in the wake of the pandemic, Mercator notices and expects similar features (security, cloud, consumer analytics, IoT payment, and unique IoT capability) to be part of emerging IoT payments platforms.
Overview by David Nelyubin, Research Analyst at Mercator Advisory Group
