Market intelligence provider says growth will be seen in the market over the coming year, but in single digits only.
International Data Corporation (IDC) has announced that it expects the hardcopy peripherals market to begin to experience slow recovery during 2013, despite a double-digit decline of 11.2 percent year over year in 4Q12 to 31.1 million units and a one percent decline in the colour laser MFP market in the same quarter due to ongoing weakness in the global economy catching up with the segment. The market did, however, see a 10 percent year over year increase for the full year 2012, suggesting that recovery could be on the way.
“The inkjet market is largely responsible for the declines due to weak consumer demand. However, business inkjet growth is solid, and these premium-priced products are helping vendors to overcome some of their consumer revenue declines,” said Phuong Hang, Program Manager of Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers. “IDC expects the market will slowly begin to recover as consumer confidence returns, but growth rates will be in the single digits.”
IDC also notes that while inkjet still accounted for 64 percent of the total hardcopy peripherals market in 4Q12 with more than 19.8 million units shipped, it experienced a 14 percent year over year decline; compared to the monochrome laser segment which represented 27 percent of the total market, up by two points from 4Q11, and “continues to be very much in demand in business environments, especially in times of financial hardship”. However, IDC expects colour laser devices to overtake monochrome in terms of volume despite it decreasing 11 percent year over year, adding that colour is “rapidly developing in both A4 and A3 markets”.
In terms of vendors, HP continues to lead the global hardcopy peripherals market with a 38.5 percent market share and over 12.9 million units shipped in 4Q12, achieving its best ever year iver year results in China, growing by one percent to over 983,000 units in the same quarter. Meanwhile, Canon is ranked second with a 22.4 percent market share, up three points from the previous year, with the OEM growing by 40 percent year over year; and Epson’s 14.4 percent market share maintains its position in third place.