Shipments for overall hardcopy market record strong sequential growth of 11.6 percent

FRAMINGHAM, USA: Despite challenging market conditions, total shipments for the overall hardcopy market recorded sequential growth of 11.6% in the third quarter of 2009 (3Q09), according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker.

MFP shipments continue to dominate the hardcopy market with 17 million units shipped in 3Q09, representing 63 percent of total shipments in the quarter. The market's bright spot remains the color laser multifunction peripheral (MFP) space, with year-over-over growth of 1.3 percent, an impressive climb from year-over-year growth of –6 percent in the second quarter.

To weather the current economic situation, major vendors are maintaining their focus on aggressive pricing, strong promotions, and improving their relationship with channel partners across regions. “Vendors are getting more and more creative with their offerings, from bundling their product with Symantec anti-virus software to store gift cards to mobile phone cards,” said Phuong Hang, program manager, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers. “We are also seeing an increasing number of vendors putting additional effort into building their channel relationships, including boosting their incentive rewards for the best-performing channels.”

Technology highlights
* Sequentially, all inkjet, monochrome and color laser printers, and MFP categories experienced positive growth in 3Q09, with monochrome laser printers and MFPs leading the pack with 14 percent growth over the second quarter.
* The laser market continues to trail behind the inkjet segment by 42 percent, with approximately 7.4 million units shipped in 3Q09.
* The laser MFP market remains the largest segment in terms of value at $2.8 billion, even though the segment's unit shipments only accounted for 11 percent of the total hardcopy market.
* Compared to the second quarter, the color laser segment showed a notably slower year-over-year decline (-11 percent in 3Q09 vs. -22 percent in 2Q09), making this the best performing subtechnology in 3Q09 in terms of year-over-year growth.

Regional highlights
US – Despite the challenging economic conditions, the US market faired relatively well compared to the other regions. It ranks third after Asia/Pacific and Japan in terms of shipments and fourth in terms of value after Japan, Asia/Pacific, and Canada.

Western Europe – In 3Q09, Western Europe seems to have reached the bottom of its decline in growth rates, with year-over-year unit shipments declining 12 percent, which is approximately 10 points higher than the previous quarter. This region ranks second in terms of value ($2.7 billion) in 3Q09, and third in terms of unit shipments (6 million).

CEMA –The hardest hit region in terms of growth rates was Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMA). In 3Q09, unit shipments declined 37 percent, while value declined 51 percent.

Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) – This region is in the second position, just ahead of the US, in terms of unit shipments with 6.6 million in 3Q09. APeJ maintained its fourth place rank in terms of value with $1.8 billion. The value growth rate for this region was second only to Japan’s.

Japan – This region’s –7 percent shipment growth rate is second only to Asia/Pacific and its value growth rate of –3 percent was the best when compared to other regions in 3Q09.

Vendor highlights
HP remains the number one hardcopy peripheral vendor worldwide in terms of shipments, despite losing nearly 4 points in unit market share and declining 23 percent year over year in 3Q09. The Americas region was HP’s strongest in terms of unit growth in 3Q09, with –17 percent year-over-year growth, compared to –26 percent and –29 percent growth in APeJ and EMEA respectively. Compared to a year ago, both MFP and printer segments experienced market share declines in 3Q09 on a worldwide basis.

Canon strengthened its position as the number two vendor, gaining 3 percent in the overall hardcopy market share to 19 percent in 3Q09, up from 16 percent in 3Q08. Canon and Samsung were the only two vendors in the top five with positive year-over-year growth worldwide. APeJ was Canon’s best performing region in 3Q09, trending at 12 percent year-over-year growth, outpacing the Americas (0 percent) and EMEA (-8 percent). Compared to one year ago, both the MFP and Printer divisions experienced market share expansion in 3Q09 on a worldwide basis with 14 percent growth in 3Q08 and 18 percent growth in 3Q09 for MFPs, and 17 percent growth in 3Q08 and 20 percent growth in 3Q09 for Printer.

Epson retained its number three rank in the total hardcopy market based on shipments in 3Q09, gaining one point in market share from a year ago. However, Epson’s unit shipments declined 5 percent year over year in 3Q09. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) was the top performing region for Epson in terms of year-over-year shipment growth (+3 percent), followed by Americas (0 percent) and EMEA (-15 percent). Epson’s worldwide MFP shipments (+3 percent) grew faster than its printer shipments (-16 percent) in 3Q09.

Brother maintained its fourth position overall, holding on to 6 percent share of the total hardcopy market in 3Q09. As with most vendors, Brother’s total shipments slipped in 3Q09 resulting in a year-over-year decline of 17 percent, second worst among the top five. Its Printer division faired better than MFPs in the quarter, maintaining a 3 percent share in the Printer space while MFPs lost 1 point, going from 8 percent in 3Q08 to 7 percent market share.

Samsung made the top five list for the first time based on its positive year-over-year growth of 2 percent in the overall hardcopy market worldwide. Samsung’s unit shipments jumped from 1.34 million in 3Q08 to 1.37 million in 3Q09, increasing its total market share from 4 percent to 5 percent. Samsung's MFP and Printer divisions both expanded their worldwide market share in the quarter, from 3 percent to 4 percent for MFP, and 5 percent to 7 percent for Printer.