Researcher Reports Printer Shipment Decline

For the first time this year, the number of printers being shipped globally has declined.

Industry analyst group IDC say only 25.5 million units were shipped this last quarter, following 3 quarters of steady growth.

Compared to the same time last year, it represents a 2.3% decrease.

However, increases in printer sales took place in Asia Pacific and Western Europe.

In other highlights from the IDC Tracker Report,three of the Top 5 printer OEMs, Epson, Samsung and Brother) continue to ship more printers, particularly in Asia Pacific.

Samsung overtook HP as the laser market leader in Western Europe particularly in Germany and Italy.

Inkjet still makes up 60% of the market but the best market growth is in laser, particularly in color which grew 10.3% last quarter.The single function printer market declined by -7.7% in the last quarter

And multifunction printer shipments experienced flat growth.

However, color multifunction printers, particularly at the low speed end of the market showed strong growth.

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