Second quarter sees worldwide hardcopy peripherals market decline for the first time in three previous quarters, with 25.5 million units shipped worldwide.
The 2Q2014 results for the worldwide hardcopy peripherals market were reported by IDC to indicate a decline for the first time in the past three quarters, resulting in a year-over-year decline in shipments of 2.3 percent. However, positive year-over-year gains of 0.4 percent and five percent respectively were seen in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) and Western Europe, with the growth in APeJ driven by China and the region experiencing its fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
The majority of the market (59.7 percent) continued to be made up of inkjet devices, but laser saw the best market growth, with colour laser growing 10.3 percent as two million units were shipped during the quarter. Overall, colour grew its market share to 19 percent as it experienced year-on-year growth of 10.3 percent, while monochrome printers dropped two points of share to 81 percent and decreased by three percent year-over-year.
The single-function printer market declined 7.7 percent year-over-year, while MFP shipments experienced flat growth but saw strong growth in colour laser speed ranges, particularly in one to 10 ppm devices.
The second quarter saw an acceleration in the move to faster speed segments, with the 45 to 69 ppm monochrome laser MFP segment showing the strongest year-over-year growth at 15.7 percent, followed by 31 to 44 ppm devices at 7.8 percent, which was fuelled by HP’s LaserJet Pro 400 series. Meanwhile in the colour market, the 21 to 30 ppm MFP segment saw a 12.9 percent year-over-year growth, followed by a growth of 8.3 percent in the 45 to 69 ppm segment and 4.5 percent growth in the 70 to 90 ppm segment.
IDC noted that there continues to be a battle between A3 and A4 devices in the mid-speed market segments, with A4 MFP devices gaining penetration in the 31 to 69 ppm monochrome segment with a 77.2 percent share of the total monochrome A4/A3 MFP market in the same speed segment and a year-over-year growth of 13.6 percent. This growth was driven by strong results in the A4 31 to 44 ppm and A4 45 to 69 ppm MFP segments, with notable contributions from HP (21.4 percent), Lexmark (16.8 percent), and Kyocera (13.5 percent).
Looking at vendor results, three of the top five vendors – Epson, Samsung and Brother – saw positive year-over-year growth; with Epson’s and Brother’s growth driven by gains in APeJ. Meanwhile, Samsung overtook HP as the laser market leader in Western Europe, with the OEM being “very strong” in the low-end as it markets its products on price. The company also has strong operations in Germany and Italy. IDC added that distributors and dealers “tend to trade HP and Samsung off with each other”, resulting in fluctuating sales.
Commenting on the results, Phuong Hang, Program Director, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripherals Trackers at IDC, said: “While the overall hardcopy market is mature and we often point to emerging markets as the growth areas, it is important to note that there are still areas of growth and opportunity in more mature markets. Vendors should keep in mind that while pursuing growth in new geographies they need to defend their positions in high-value segments of mature regions, such as colour laser multifunction printers (MFP) and the A4 monochrome laser midmarket.”
The Recycler reported in June on the first quarter results of the hardcopy market, which had been the market’s third consecutive quarter of growth with 26.4 million units shipped.