The markets saw an increase of 6.6 percent in shipments in the third quarter of 2013. 
IDC reported the return “to a state of positive growth” for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) markets in the third quarter of 2013, with shipments up 6.6 percent over last year to 1,472,000 units, though revenues saw a “modest decline” of one percent in the same period.
The analysts reported that shipment growth was seen “across most countries in the region”, with emerging markets in north Africa as well as Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa “the main drivers of this performance”, with more developed markets only seeing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey experience growth – Saudi Arabia’s shipments “remained flat” and South Africa’s declined.
Inkjet shipments grew 0.6 percent to 625,000 units, though revenues declined by 6.5 percent, with devices priced below $100 (€73) seeing a growth of nine percent, a “primary contributor to the decline of overall inkjet revenues” as shipments contributed almost 70 percent of the units shipped. Just under 85 percent of all inkjets shipped were MFPs, and the shipments of these increased by 2.1 percent, whilst single-function inkjets shrank by 9.2 percent in terms of units.
In terms of laser, monochrome shipments grew “substantially” by 12.8 percent to 648,000 units, though again revenues declined by 3.8 percent, whilst MFP shipments grew by 26.1 percent, with “demand from captive markets” helped increase single-function machines by 3.5 percent. Colour laser meanwhile saw 130,000 units shipped, an increase of 28.2 percent in units and 13.5 percent in revenue, with MFPs making up 63 percent of the volume, and shipments up by 33.1 percent of these.
HP remains in first place with 52.9 percent share of the market, with a nine percent increase in shipments, while Canon is second with a 20.6 percent share and Samsung is third with 17.2 percent. Brother and Epson hold fourth and fifth positions with 4.9 and 4.4 percent respectively, with Epson seeing a drastic 31.1 percent decline in shipments “due to its withdrawal from the entry-level inkjet segment”.
Ashwin Venkatchari, Senior Programme Manager for imaging, printing, and document solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, stated: “Notwithstanding the political strife in Syria, Egypt, and parts of North Africa, the MEA 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.”