Some notable accomplishments in the third quarter include:
- Western Europe, one of the biggest regions in terms of HCP shipments, enjoyed its sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. The main driver for growth in the region was color MFP products. Inkjet markets continued to show year-on-year increases but demand in consumer markets weakened, while the growth patterns for business inkjets were again strong.
- Two of the top 5 vendors (Epson and Samsung) enjoyed positive year-over-year growth. Most of Epson's growth came from developing regions, while Samsung extended its gains into developed regions like the United States and Western Europe.
- Ricoh continued to gain momentum in the laser space, recording continuous year-over-year growth in unit shipments since the first quarter of 2010.
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"IDC expects solutions, services, and workflows will be the main growth areas for the printing industry going forward. Nevertheless, there is still ample opportunity to make equipment sales within the traditional printing market as well as in adjacent markets," said Phuong Hang, Program Director, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers.
Key Hardcopy Market Transitions Taking Place in 3Q14
Inkjet still makes up the majority of the market, but the best market growth is in laser. Color laser shipments grew 4.6% in 3Q14 to nearly 2 million units.
Single function to Multifunction: The single function printer market declined -6.2% year over year in the third quarter, while multifunction peripheral (MFP) shipments had flat growth. However, MFPs had a strong performance in all color laser speed ranges, especially in 31-44ppm, growing 19.2% year over year.
Monochrome to Color: Color increased 1% from a year ago to 19.3% share versus its monochrome counterparts, which lost one point to account for 80.7% share in 3Q14. Color's year-over-year growth was 4.6% while mono laser declined -2.2%. The strongest color speed segment was the 1-10 ppm (23.1%), where Samsung did particularly well with the SL-C460 model family.
Move to Faster Speed Segments Accelerates: The 45-69ppm monochrome laser MFP segment exhibited the strongest year-over-year growth in 3Q14 at 19.5%, followed by 70-90ppm (9.9%) and 31-44ppm (9.1%). The 45-69ppm segment's strong growth was fueled by Xerox's WorkCentre 3615DN. In the color market, the 31-44ppm MFP segment did well at 19.2% year-over-year growth, followed by 45-69ppm at 13.6% and 70-90ppm at 11.2%.
The A3/A4 battle in the mid-speed market segments continues. A4 MFP devices gained penetration in the 31-69ppm monochrome segment with 77.7% share of the total monochrome A4/A3 MFP market in the same speed segment. The 16.8% year-over-year growth of the A4 31-69ppm MFP monochrome laser segment was driven by strong year-over-year results in the both A4 31-44ppm(12.2% growth) and A4 45-69ppm MFP segment (46.9% growth) with significant contributions from Kyocera Document Solutions (43.2%), Lexmark (16.1%), and HP (14.1%).
Notes:
- IDC tracks A2-A4 devices in the Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals
- Hardcopy Peripherals include single-function printers, multifunctional systems (MFPs), and single-function digital copiers (SF DC). Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.
About IDC Trackers
IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhone and iPad.