Analysts Context reported a breakdown of different printer model sales for the year.
The analysts stated that laser MFP sales had grown eight percent in 2013, despite an “overall printer market decline” of four percent. It added that “all other imaging categories” saw a decline in sales in Western Europe in 2013, with inkjet MFP sales falling three percent and single-function lasers and inkjet falling nine and 12 percent respectively.
Context noted that “in many of the markets, printer hardware distribution sales in all categories combined were in single-digit decline”, though “there were a few exceptions”, including France, Belgium and Ireland, which saw five percent, eight percent and one percent growth in sales. The French market saw this growth in all categories except single-function inkjet.
In terms of other nations, Germany saw a fall of five percent in yearly unit growth compared to 2012, whilst the UK saw a fall of eight percent and Italy three percent. Spain and Switzerland saw no change in sales, whilst Austria saw a large decline of 10 percent. In terms of OEM sales, HP and Samsung saw six and five percent declines in hardware sales in 2013, whilst Canon and Brother enjoyed 28 and 15 percent growth respectively in positive results.
Of the other OEMs, Kyocera and Xerox saw sales “stay stable”, whilst OKI, Ricoh and Dell recorded “double-digit positive growth”, according to Context. These results follow the statistics from IDC earlier this week, which posited a quarterly growth in shipments for Western Europe in 4Q13.
Zivile Brazdziunaite, Imaging Market Analyst at Context, commented: “The growth in France was driven mainly by the laser MFP category, where Samsung recorded a 13 percent increase in sales driven by colour printers in this segment. Demand for Samsung’s A3 and A4 MFPs that feature the web?based XOA (extensible Open Architecture) Embedded open platform, which allows for increased productivity and savings in operational costs, further strengthened the company’s position in the business market.”