CTP sales had moved away from the big players to companies of 20 or fewer staff because more affordable systems had come on to the market, said The Changing Dynamics of CTP Market Share.

The "dramatically changed competitive landscape" had led to an unstable market share, it said. "The surviving market leaders face continuing tests from aggressive challengers."

State Street Consultants, the Boston-based market researcher, interviewed more than 12,000 printers with 2,500 systems and said it found interesting success stories and notable failures.

It threw up possible reasons for the shift, such as the success of violet-diode machines against entrenched thermal kit and the possibility of smaller-format platesetters taking hold of the market.

Although 8pp machines made up 72% of installed systems in North America, 4pp platesetters were increasingly important and made up one in five machines. This trend would continue to grow, the company reckoned.

Smaller printers were the biggest segment of the print market, it explained. Their needs and resources were very different from medium- and large-sized companies.

The 11,400 ($17,500) report ranked Pressteks Dimension400 the top choice in 4pp kit among smaller printers, and said it held second spot in market share for 4pp in North America.

Presstek president Edward Marino said his company had "achieved significant momentum since the launch of Dimensions CTP family".

Story by Jez Abbott