Global print market rebounds in fourth quarter

Samsung led in one category, but could not beat the long-time overal leader, HP

Hardcopy peripherals sales grew by 3.6 per cent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2009, with 34 million units shipped between October and December, says IDC.

The analyst’s latest Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker recorded growth in the market year-on-year for the first time since the second quarter of 2008.

Phuong Hang, programme manager for the IDC tracker, said this probably marked the start of a market recovery and was driven by the continued popularity of multifunction printers (MFPs).

“[However] while this is a positive sign, the market is expected to recover slowly throughout 2010,” Hang said.

Shipment values declined 4.6 per cent year over year to $14.3bn (£9.47bn) in the quarter, but this was the slowest rate of decline since the third quarter of 2008.

“In previous quarters, the key bright spot in the overall hardcopy peripherals market worldwide has been the colour laser MFP market. This quarter, monochrome laser MFPs took that honour with 9.3 per cent year-over-year growth, relegating the colour laser MFP market to second-tier status among major market segments with eight per cent growth,” said Hang.

Samsung led the monochrome laser MFP market in unit terms, with 60.6 per cent year-over-year growth. HP continued as the “irrefutable leader” overall, however.

Inkjets remained dominant, with 23.8 million units shipped in the last quarter of 2009, and this was expected to continue.

According to IDC, the US market was the most valuable, netting $4.4bn in the quarter, and Western Europe saw the most units shipped, 8.2 million. The highest shipments growth, though, was seen in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan.

Channelweb's report of the results from IDC's latest EMEA tracker is here.