African Printer Market Remarks Strongest Quarterly Growth

The African hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market recorded a 17.7% year-on-year (YOY) growth in shipment for the first quarter of 2014 (1Q2014), with revenue up 10%. IDC says the revenue growth was modest as vendors cut their prices for competing unofficial import. Also, the market remarked its strongest performance of the past two years.

According to IDC, inkjet shipments to Africa grew 26.1% YOY in 1Q2014, with 281,000 units and revenue up 25.2%. The growth was mainly driven by inkjet devices priced below $100. Also, devices prices above $400 increased and had an impact on the revenue growth. This shows that it is not only cheap devices sell well in the region.

Mono laser shipments increased 11.3% for 1Q2014, with 227,000 units. As vendors cut price to remain competitive, the revenues of this segment was down 1.3%. Due to “vendors increased their prices to offset the losses incurred in the mono laser space”, color laser segment marked 28.7% growth in revenues, with shipments up 18.2% YOY and 42,800 units in the same period.

“Africa is proving to be one of the fastest growing regions in the world for hardcopy peripherals. Increased investments in the development of IT infrastructure in most parts of the continent are driving demand for hardcopy peripherals. Much of the region has traditionally been serviced through unofficial imports; however, some vendors have already started to invest in local channel development. And these investments are now beginning to show rich dividends,” adds Ashwin Venkatchari, Senior Program Manager for imaging, printing, and document solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.