2005:TERRIBLE YEAR FOR UK PRINTER MARKET

[Anonymous]

Sales revenues decline despite market growth
Pricing squeeze keeps turnover low compared with last year although there was growth in unit sales
Revenue from sales of IT equipment in October 2005 was down compared with the same month a year ago across Europe, according to the latest figures from channel analyst Context.
The firm’s SalesWatch research revealed that revenues declined despite many sectors recording unit growth in the same timeframe; a sign of the continuing squeeze on prices, Context said.
In the UK, notebooks continued to prove more popular than desktops, with sales of notebooks up 21.9 per cent while sales of desktops fell 16.9 per cent in October. However turnover declined for both desktops and notebooks by 19 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively.
Servers came out on top in the UK with sales up 22.9 per cent and turnover up 11.7 per cent, while across Europe server sales fell three per cent and turnover dropped 13.4 per cent. However, the UK printer market saw sales drop 12.6 per cent, while in Europe printer sales rose 8.5 per cent.
Jason Harcourt, senior analyst at Context, told CRN: “2005 was a terrible year for the UK printer market. The first half of 2004 was very strong for laser printers, but since then it has really tailed off month on month. This could be due to a general slowdown in the UK economy as spend on printers tends to be the first thing people cut from their budgets. I’d like to think there will be a recovery in the printer market this year.”
Kevin Jones, managing director of printer reseller Printware, said: “Last year was tough, but I would say it was tough for the overall IT market not just printers. However, we sold more printers in our core category – colour business lasers – than last year.”
Leanne Gravil, branch manager at VAR CBC Computer Systems, said: “We sell more notebooks than anything else. We sell a lot through the ‘laptops for teachers’ scheme. In the last 12 months there has been a definite decline in the sales of desktops.”

[Author]

January 13, 2006 at 10:49 AM