Inkjets Dominate U.S. Printer Market

[Anonymous]

Inkjets Dominate U.S. Printer Market

Astounding Growth’ for Production Copiers
InfoTrends/CAP Ventures Releases 2004 U.S. Copier, Fax, and Printer
Placements; Growth Driven by Color.

Color Fuels Copier Growth
Data published in the document entitled
Preliminary U.S. Copier Market Placements for 2004 indicates that the production
segment for copiers grew an astounding 73% between 2003 and 2004, while the
personal and workgroup segments declined slightly. Color segments represent the
brightest spot in the copier market, with workgroup color and production color
increasing 47% and 241%, respectively. This growth was fueled by the high number
of color-enabled product introductions throughout 2004.

“Clearly, a key area of focus in the color market is the office environment,”
commented Rick Clayton, a Director of DPS at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. “Copier
vendors see a real opportunity in the office for the migration of black &
white pages to color and also bringing color work in-house when it had
previously been outsourced.”

Inkjets Dominate U.S. Printer Market
Placements within the U.S.
printer market increased from 28.6 million units in 2003 to 30.3 million units
in 2004. The data released in the document entitled Preliminary U.S. Printer and
Printer-Based MFP Placements for 2004 reveals inkjet technology is dominating
this market, accounting for 25.9 million unit placements during 2004.

Color page printer placements experienced an impressive 56% year-over-year
growth, rising to 563,495 units in 2004. For the same period, monochrome
printers grew at a rate of 3%. This can largely be attributed to the growth of
monochrome multifunctional printers.

Fax Market Struggling
InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ report entitled
Preliminary U.S. Fax Placements for 2004 indicates that 2004 fax placements
experienced a shift from the personal segment to the mid-volume workgroup
segment as a result of lower pricing and increased functionality for products in
the workgroup segment. Most new models introduced in 2004 were within the
mid-volume workgroup segment, which experienced a 1.2% growth over 2003
placements.

“The U.S. facsimile market continues to struggle, evidenced by the slight
decline in year-over-year unit placements,” commented Clayton. “Today, the
majority of copier-based segment 1 and 2 devices and multifunctional workgroup
printers include built-in fax capabilities, which are heavily impacting overall
fax placements.”

Each document includes InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ 2004 estimates for U.S.
placements of either printer, copier, or facsimile products. The reports also
include year-over-year market share statistics. InfoTrends/CAP Ventures intends
to publish its comprehensive 2004 – 2009 forecasts on these markets this
summer.

[Author]

May 2, 2005 at 12:06 PM