Total shipments for the overall hardcopy market recorded a sequential growth of 11.6% in the third quarter of 2009, according to research firm IDC.
The report showed that Multifunction peripheral (MFP) shipments continue to dominate the hardcopy market with 17m units shipped in the third quarter of 2009, representing 63% of total shipments in the quarter. The market’s bright spot remains the colour laser MFP space, with year-over-over growth of 1.3%, an increase from year-over-year growth of –6% in the second quarter.
Phuong Hang, program manager of Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers at IDC, said: Vendors are getting more and more creative with their offerings, from bundling their product with Symantec anti-virus software to store gift cards to mobile phone cards. We are also seeing an increasing number of vendors putting additional effort into building their channel relationships, including boosting their incentive rewards for the best-performing channels.
Sequentially, all inkjet, monochrome and colour laser printers, and MFP categories experienced positive growth, with monochrome laser printers and MFPs leading the pack with 14% growth over the second quarter. The laser market continues to trail behind the inkjet segment by 42%, with approximately 7.4m units shipped in the third quarter of 2009, IDC said.
According to the report, laser MFP market remains the largest segment in terms of value at $2.8 billion, even though the segment’s unit shipments accounted for only 11% of the total hardcopy market.
HP gains the top spot as a hardcopy peripheral vendor in terms of shipments, despite decline of 23% year over year in the third quarter of 2009. It had a market share of 41%. Canon gained second position with market share of 19%, Epson retained its number three rank based on shipments, despite its unit shipments declined 5% year over year while Brother maintained its fourth position holding on to 6% share.
Samsung made the top five list for the first time based on its positive year-over-year growth of 2% in the overall hardcopy market. Its unit shipments jumped from 1.34m in 3Q08 to 1.37m in 3Q09, increasing its total market share from 4% to 5%.
The study showed that despite the challenging economic conditions, US market ranked third after Asia/Pacific (APeJ) and Japan in terms of shipments and fourth in terms of value after Japan, Asia/Pacific, and Canada. During the quarter, Western Europe year-over-year unit shipments declined 12%, gaining second place in terms of value at $2.7bn, and third in terms of unit shipments with 6m units.
In addition, the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) unit shipments declined 37%, while value declined 51%. APeJ is in the second position, in terms of unit shipments with 6.6m, and maintained its fourth place in terms of value with $1.8bn.
