Using data from IDC, an estimated 942 million inkjet cartridges will be sold across the world at a rate of approximately 30 per second.
Technology website Neowin has estimated
that 942 million inkjet cartridges will be sold in 2012, amounting to approximately 30 per second, using figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
This represents enough ink to print 39 million A4-sized photos, or to fill 4.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The figure has been estimated using statistics from IDC that states that over 314 million inkjet cartridges will be sold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), representing a third of global printing. Much of the reason behind the largess of the figures is due to the market share of inkjet devices, which represents 64 percent of all printing devices.
In particular, usage of colour inkjet devices is increasing while 85 percent of global laser devices are still restricted to printing in mono. In addition, the number of pages printed on colour inkjet devices is said to have increased by 11 percent, in spite of a 1.4 percent decrease in global inkjet share.
Neowin also states that, despite the proliferation of inkjet devices, “people are targeting independent sources for the inkjet cartridges rather than buying the branded product linked with their printers”. Sales of OEM inkjet consumables have declined by 19.2 percent when comparing 2011 sales figures with 2010.
IDC’s EMEA Consumables Program Manager Joanna Pupkowska added: “The demand is higher in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa than in Western Europe. This is because of different price sensitivities and the structure of local offers, with, for example, Russia and Ukraine being heavily dominated by bulk products and refill kits.”