WORLD-WIDE PRINTER SALES DOWN 17% IN Q1

[Anonymous]

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Printer Business Drops In Q1: IDC
The
economic downturn has taken its toll on the printer business, causing
shipments to fall more than 17 percent worldwide compared with last
year, with color laser multifunction devices a relative bright spot in
an otherwise gloomy market.In its latest Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy
Peripherals Tracker, research firm IDC reported that worldwide
shipments of hard-copy peripherals, including printers and
multifunction printers, totaled 26.4 million units in the first quarter
of 2009, down about 17.6 percent compared with the first quarter of
2008.Shipments in the U.S. market, however, fell by a more moderate 13
percent in the same period to reach a total of 6 million units.Of all
types of printer devices, MFPs were the least impacted by the economy,
with shipments of MFPs falling about 10 percent year-over-year. Of
those, color laser MFP shipments actually rose 6 percent during the
quarter to 632,000 units, IDC said.The single-function printer market
was slammed, with shipments plunging 28 percent as the market continues
to move toward MFP devices.

IDC found that the total sales of
printers worldwide fell 21 percent to $12.8 billion in the first
quarter of 2009, the third consecutive quarterly decline.Phuong Hang,
program manager, IDC Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers, wrote that
he expects the hard[-copy peripherals market to recover in 2010, but
until that happens, vendors need to step up their game.”IDC expects
that vendors will employ several strategies to weather the current
economic downturn,” he wrote in a statement. “The battle will continue
in the channel to gain go-to-market strength and capacity. Vendors will
also focus on offering cost-cutting and/or productivity enhancements to
customers’ existing document infrastructure as well as driving managed
print services.”

IDC said that Hewlett-Packard  led the printing
pack despite a 24 percent drop in shipments in the quarter compared
with the same period a year ago. Even so, HP remained the top vendor
for the quarter, with 41 percent market share, down from 44 percent in
the first quarter of 2008.Canon took the No. 2 spot among vendors in
the first quarter of 2009. The company’s unit shipments declined just 6
percent year-over-year, resulting in increased market share of 17
percent, up 2 points from the first quarter a year ago.Epson, the No. 3
vendor in the market, saw its unit shipments fall 13 percent in the
quarter, compared with a drop of 14 percent in the same period a year
ago.Brother, the fourth player among the top companies, was the only
vendor with positive year-over-year growth. Its 3 percent growth in
shipments to 1.9 million units gave it a 7.1 percent share of the total
hard-copy peripherals market, up from its 5.6 percent share in the
first quarter of 2008.Rounding out the top five vendors was Lexmark,
which saw its share of the market fall 1 point to 5 percent on
shipments of 1.3 million units in the first quarter of 2009

[Author]

June 12, 2009 at 11:54 AM