Some Bright Spots in Hardcopy Peripherals Market

Emerging markets were a key bright spot in the overall hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market in the second quarter of 2011 (2Q11), with unit shipments up 6% year-over-year for the seventh consecutive quarter of growth. In contrast, the developed regions recorded the first quarter of negative shipment growth since 1Q10, resulting in a year-over-year decline of 0.3% in the overall HCP market. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, the worldwide HCP market saw shipments of nearly 29 million units in the second quarter with inkjet continuing as the dominant technology at 63% share.

While the HCP market is largely shaped by Japanese manufacturers, in both hardware and consumable supplies, IDC expects the production decline due to the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake in March to be short term, said Phuong Hang, program manager, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers.

With more than 18.3 million units shipped, 2Q11 witnessed the lowest inkjet shipments since 2Q09. Laser, on the other hand, enjoyed 4% year-over-year growth in unit shipments and gained 1 point to 32% share over the same time period.

Monochrome laser continued its positive performance from the last six quarters in the second quarter with 5% year-over-year growth and close to 7.9 million units shipped. All regions except Western Europe and the U.S. saw year-over-year growth in monochrome shipments with Latin America leading the pack at 30%.

Color laser posted a decline of 3% year over year in unit shipments, the first negative trend since 2009. With close to 1.5 million units shipped in 2Q11, the best performance region for color laser was Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) with more than 278 thousand units, resulting in 7% year-over-year growth.