The overall Western European hardcopy market showed year-on-year growth for the second quarter in a row as the total market increased 3,6% in the third quarter of 2013 to over 5,76-million units, compared with 5,56-million units a year ago, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).
There was more positive news as both ink and laser markets increased year on year by 2,6% and 6,5%. However, there were some pockets of decline and some countries continued to stutter, but in general the market outlook remains positive for the rest of the year.
Commenting on these headline numbers, Arnaud Gagneux, director of IDC’s Western European Imaging Printing and Document Solutions group, says: “We are seeing strong demand for document management solutions and managed services which is driving sales of smart devices, printers, or multi-function printers (MFPs) that can communicate with a wider mobile infrastructure. Business inkjet is also becoming a profitable niche in the market with more products being made available.”
Phil Sargeant, program director of IDC’s Western European Imaging Hardware Devices and Document Solutions group, adds: “A second growth quarter clearly shows that market recovery is gaining momentum and the recent gains of CY2Q were not just a blip. Business and commercial markets continue to lead the way with positive growth, while consumer markets remain flat but at least haven’t declined further and have stabilised.”
The overall Western European hardcopy market increased year on year by 3,6% in 3Q13, with gains in both ink and laser markets.
Total inkjet markets increased 2,6% in 3Q13 from 3Q12. Consumer inkjet markets remained flat while business inkjet markets increased year on year by 25,6%.
Laser markets remained strong with positive growth seen in many business and commercial markets. The year-on-year growth rate for all laser products was 6,5% and the largest single market was again monochrome printers.
The monochrome markets increased year on year by 7,5%, and were twice the size of the colour laser markets.
Colour laser increased year on year by 4,5% but there was a slight decline for printers – the largest colour market in CY3Q was A4 multifunction (MFP) products, which showed positive growth.
Serial impact dot matrix markets declined year on year by 36,7%.
Production markets increased year on year by 9,5 % and both the monochrome cut-sheet and colour cut-sheet markets increased.
High-speed inkjet production markets recorded year-on-year growth of 27,8%.