[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

The brightest spot in the overall worldwide hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market during the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12) was wireless devices, with its showing of 2% year-over-year growth in a challenging economic environment. According to the IDC, total worldwide hardcopy unit shipments declined 12.7% year over year to nearly 27.4 million units, the fourth consecutive quarterly decline.

Hardcopy Peripherals include single-function printers, printer-based multifunctional systems (MFPs), and single-function digital copiers (SF DC).

Technology Highlights

• Despite a contraction of 15% year over year, inkjet remains the dominant technology with 16.7 million units shipped and a 61% share of the total HCP market in 3Q12. The wireless inkjet segment in mature markets continued to exhibit growth, resulting in 1% year-over-year gain in the third quarter of 2012.
• Laser declined 8% year over year in 3Q12 to 9.6 million units resulting in a 35% share of the total HCP market. The wireless laser segment experienced year-over-year growth of 9% and 22%, respectively, in the emerging and mature markets.
• The monochrome laser market declined 9% year over year to 7.9 million units. This was the lowest year-over-year growth for monochrome laser in any quarter since 3Q08. The color laser segment declined 3% year over year to 1.7 million units in 3Q12.
• The wireless segment in mature markets outperformed emerging markets with 6% year-over-year growth versus a decline of 9%.

Vendor Highlights

HP – Despite year-over-year growth of –24.1% in 3Q12, HP remained the leading vendor in the total hardcopy peripherals market with 37.3% share, down from 42.9% one year ago. The vendor’s wireless segment also experienced a year-over-year decline of 16%.

Canon – Canon strengthened its position in the number 2 spot with more than 5.7 million units shipped, resulting in an increased market share of 20,9%, up nearly 3 points from 3Q11. The vendor grew its wireless volume 48% year-over-year. Both emerging and mature markets exhibited strong gains in the wireless segment, with year-over-year growth of 64% and 46%, respectively.

Epson – Epson finished the quarter with 5.9% year over year growth, which was notable better than that of the top two players. With more than 4.1 million units shipped, Epson captured a 15.2% share of the total hardcopy peripherals market, up more than 2 points from a year ago. With 69% growth, Epson had the best year-over-year performance in the wireless segment. Similar to Canon, wireless volume in both the emerging and mature markets experienced significant year-over-year growths, 97% and 66%, respectively.

Brother – With a 10% year over year improvement in shipments, Brother’s 3Q12 performance was the best among the top 5 vendors. Brother captured 7% overall market share on 1.9 million units. Brother also did well in the wireless segment, posting 30% year-over-year growth.

Samsung – Samsung’s share of the total HCP market slipped to 5.0% on shipments of nearly 1.4 million units in 3Q12, enabling it to remain a top 5 player. The vendor also enjoyed double-digit growth in wireless volume, with 48% year-over-year growth in the emerging markets and 55% in mature markets.

[Image Courtesy: HP]