Middle East and Africa (MEA) hardcopy peripherals (HCP) shipments grew 6.6% during the third quarter of 2013 to 1,472,000 units, according to a report from International Data Corporation (IDC).
Increase in shipments in North Africa, Nigeria, and Sub-Saharan Africa was considered to be major driver for the growth in shipment.
According to the report, developed markets like the UAE and Turkey experienced growth, while shipments in Saudi Arabia remained the same and went down in South Africa.
IDC MEA senior programme manager Ashwin Venkatchari said despite the political strife in Syria, Egypt, and parts of North Africa, the region has once again proved to offer one of the most sustainable growth opportunities in the world for print vendors.
"We believe that this encouraging development is organic in nature given the balance between increased tender activity among public sector entities and large enterprises and the increased SMB opportunities presented by improvements in the region’s macroeconomic environment," Venkatchari added.
"Technologies such as multifunction printers (MFP) and digital copiers have shown sustainable growth across most of the region’s markets."
At the same time, an increasing number of vendors are showing a keen interest in introducing managed print services (MPS) and document solutions to their portfolios as they look to move away from their traditional business models."
The MEA HCP market was led by HP with 52.9% share along with 9% year-on-year growth in shipments, followed by Canon with 20.6% share, while Samsung and Brother secured third and fourth positions with 17.2% and 4.9% market shares respectively.
Epson held 4.4% share to occupy the fifth position, in spite of 31.1% year-on-year drop in shipments owing to its withdrawal from the entry-level inkjet segment.
During the quarter, the inkjet shipments went up by 0.6% to 652,500 units, while revenues declined by 6.5% and about 85% of all inkjet devices shipped were MFPs.
Monochrome laser segment experienced 12.8% increase during the third quarter of 2013, with shipment of 648,000 units, while its revenues dropped 3.8%.
The coluor laser segment recorded highest growth in the quarter by shipping 130,000 colour laser devices representing 28.2% rise in shipments and 13.5% growth in revenue.
