The market, including laser, inkjet and dot-matrix machines, is expected to grow 8.8 percent per year from 2013 through to 2019.
The report from Research Moz found that the market has been “primarily driven by increase in demand” for MFPs in “corporate” businesses and SMBs, as well as “government end-user segments”. In turn, MPS and document solutions were also “one of the factors propelling market growth”, with the market valued at $2.003 billion (€1.866 billion) in 2012 and projected to have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8 percent in the years since.
The analysts pointed out however that “shift in workflow from hard copy to electronic format is a major factor inhibiting growth”, though laser printers were the largest segment “by revenue share” in 2012, when the report began, followed by inkjets, and laser “has emerged as the key technology being used in MFPs”. The “increase in demand” for MFPs in the corporate segment meanwhile led “to the growth” of the market, alongside the “low cost”, which was “further fuelling the demand”.
As well as looking at the market in segment terms, the report profiled “major players” on their “market position, business strategies and various recent developments”, including Brother, Canon, HP Inc, Samsung and Epson. The African economy’s “rapid growth spurred by high investments in energy” and IT technology has also seen “more than one third of African countries” reach a GDP (gross domestic product) rate of over six percent.
This expansion has been “attracting global printer manufacturers to the emerging economies […] as the global demand for printers faces volatility”, with the research firm adding that its study “strategically” focused on printers and “providing market insight into and data about the size and growth of each segment”. Segmentation of the repot “intends to provide strategic insight into each category” and to enable “stakeholders across the value chain to gain considerable business intelligence”.
Countries focused on in the report included South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, while the “rest of Africa” was also analysed in terms of “factors driving and restraining growth, and future business opportunities”.