Printers and copiers market grows 7 per cent in H1 to $208 mn: Gartner

MUMBAI: The combined serial inkjet and page printers, copiers and multifunction products (MFP) market in the country totaled 7,15,202 units in the second quarter of the year, a 6.8 per cent increase over the year-ago period, according to research firm Gartner.

The total end-user spending stood at $208.1 million, up 35 per cent from the same period last year, Gartner said in a statement.

"The MFP market growth here has been driven by the banking, financial services and insurance, education and government sectors," Gartner research analyst Amrita Choudhury said.

She further said the market also gained some traction in the high speed segment, often used by large publishing houses or organisations to print their outbound communications.

HP maintained its leadership position in the printers, copiers and MFP market, accounting for 51.4 per cent of shipments, followed by Canon with 23 per cent, Samsung with 8.3 per cent and Epson with 8.1 per cent market share.

In the A4 MFP segment also, HP is the market leader with a 48.2 per cent market share, followed by Samsung with 22.7 per cent and Canon with 13.7 per cent share in the second quarter.

The A3 flatbed copier MFP segment saw Canon leading the market with a 28.9 per cent share, followed by Konica Minolta, which accounted for 19.7 per cent of total sales. Ricoh commanded 12.8 per cent of the market.

The inkjet printer market declined 7.2 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. HP, which accounted for 50.8 per cent of the total sales in the segment, witnessed a shipment decline of 23.6 per cent. Epson commanded a market share of 30 percent and had a shipment decline of 8.8 per cent.

Canon improved its shipments in the inkjet division and grew at 136 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2011, and contributed to 18.8 per cent of market share.