IDC reported a four percent growth in the printer consumables market for 2014, with third-party cartridges experiencing growth in toner and declines in inkjet.
The market analyst reported on the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) market’s final quarter and financial year results, with the printer consumables market declining by 0.5 percent in the quarter but growing by four percent compared to 2013 for a value of $1.729 billion (€1.632 billion) – 23 percent, or $392 million (€369 million) of which is contributed by third-party brands, including remanufacturers and compatibles.
The market as a whole is “witnessing decline” in inkjet cartridge shipments, which has resulted in a revenue decline as well, though the toner market “still recorded growth in revenue”, and “continues to record growth” that is “driven by third-party vendors”. The analysts warned that recently OEMs have “increasingly focused” on the market, as evidenced by shipment growth of peripherals, which in turn has “catalysed the growth” of the installed base.
However, this growth “didn’t help OEMs” as price-sensitive SMBs and SOHOs “prefer economic third-party products over high-priced original toners”, and looking to the future, IDC believes that the toner market will “witness intense competition between OEM and third-party products” – even though OEMs still have over 60 percent share of the revenue, they are “losing share as a part of total unit shipment”.
Additionally, third-party companies are “focusing on growing their revenue by launching high-end products” such as colour toner cartridges and high-speed consumables, as well as “changing packaging” to target developed markets and “quality-cautious commercial enterprises”, with the result that the packaging is “helping” them to “sell their products through modern retail and also through online channels”.
Pankaj Chawla, IDC’s Research Manager for IPDS Research, commented on the inkjet market in turn, stating: “Looking at the inkjet space, OEM vendors have launched inkjet hardcopy peripherals (HCPs) which offer more page yield at low cost of print per page (CPP). This strategy has helped OEM vendors as low-priced original ink made third party ink products a less attractive option.
“As a result, the overall shipment and share of third-party products has declined. However, this strategy has also affected ink revenue of OEM vendors as high yield ink cartridges are economic as compare to standard cartridges.”