IDC: Worldwide Large Format Printer Market Returned to Growth in the 3Q 13

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker, the worldwide large format printer market has accomplished a shipment of 77.7 thousand units in the third quarter of 2013 (3Q13), growing by 6.2% year over year. The total 3Q13 market value reached $802.8 million. It has been the first growth since the first quarter of 2011.

IDC says “the overall growth was fueled by solid demand from the two largest geographic markets, the United States and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)”. The U.S. enjoyed a year-over-year growth of 16.5% in units and 8.4% in shipment value while APeJ gained a 20.9% increase in units and 8.4% growth in shipment value.

Phuong Hang, Program Director, Worldwide Large Format Printer Tracker, asserted, “Epson was one of the main growth engines in the APeJ market. The password encryption on Epson print heads benefited Epson itself, as well as Roland, Mimaki and Mutoh who OEM from Epson. The encryption was established in December 2012 and helped to prevent other Chinese brands from using Epson print heads to develop their own machines.”

With respect to the technical application segment, a 5.7% growth to a shipment of 45.9 thousand units is applauded, which accounted for 59.1% share of the total LFP market in the third quarter, flat from a year ago. Most regional markets showed year-over-year unit growth in this segment with the Middle East & Africa (MEA) leading at 23.8%, followed by the U.S. at 15.4% and Japan at 12.7%.

In terms of vendor performance, HP remained the leading vendor in 3Q13 with worldwide large format printer market share of 39.1% and 30.5 thousand units shipped, which is a -1.4% decline year over year. Epson became the number two ranked vendor with 13.5% growth year over year to 16.6 thousand units shipped, seizing 21.4% share. Canon ranked number three worldwide, growing 12.4% year over year to 16.4 thousand units and 21.1% share. Roland moved up to number four in the worldwide large format printer market with 20.9% year-over-year growth and 2.7 thousand units shipped, while Ricoh remained the number five vendor for the third consecutive quarter with more than 2 thousand units shipped, increasing 22.1% to 2.6% share.