A recently released study by Gartner indicates continued weakness in the global printer, copier and multi-function printer (MFP) market, with colour printers and MFPs providing the one bright light in a table of gloomy statistics.
It was a difficult quarter for the industry in North America, which declined by 14.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, year over year. While Gartner notes the flow of credit has improved, it said the main challenge for vendors and partners in the quarter was a glut of inventory in the channel, which placed downward pressure on shipment numbers.
According to Gartner, shipments in Canada fell by 22.6 per cent, while end-user spending shrank by 17.6 per cent. Comparatively, in the U.S., shipments fell by 13.8 per cent and end-user spending fell by 21 per cent.
“While Canada’s economy has been more resistant to the global recession, it also suffered during 1Q09,” said Gartner.
Overall, North American shipments of page printers, copiers and MFPs declined by 26.3 per cent in Q1, largely due to steep declines in the printer, sheet-fed MFP and monochrome copier/MFP segments. Gartner notes the only segment to show growth was colour page copiers/MFPs.
“Users rationalizing their print fleets looked for these devices to consolidate their needs for colour,” said Gartner.
The single-function market, despite several recent new product innovations aimed at the SMB segment, continues to drop ground to MFPs. Shipments of both monochrome and colour single-function printers declined by 30 per cent in Q1.
“The only area of opportunity for vendors in this space is in the higher-speed segments as printers will become part of managed print services implementations, but unit segments could be surpassed by copiers/MFPs sometime this year,” said Gartner.
Looking at the vendor numbers, Gartner reports that Canon lost its North American market leadership position to HP (NYSE: HPQ) in Q1. Cannon dropped six points year over year to claim 15 per cent of the market, while HP, Brother and Ricoh all posted market share gains.
“We expect Canon, which lost approximately 30 per cent of its distribution sales through Ikon’s acquisition by Ricoh, to begin to recuperate some of the lost market share as it continued to built its direct sales and enhance its dealer network,” said Gartner. “Ricoh’s acquisition of Ikon has yet to translate into significant gains but has managed to curb its declines.”
In the North American serial inkjet market, Gartner reported continued declines in the consumer segment due to lower disposable income and economic uncertainty. It characterizes the market has reaching a state of largely “replacement activity” with few new purchases.
“The main driver going forward will be connectivity, as more serial inkjet machines, particularly MFPs, will become connected to wireless home networks,” said Gartner.
North American shipments in this segment declined by 8.5 per cent in the quarter, although it is an improvement over the 16.4 per cent decline recorded in Q4 of 2008. It is, however, the seventh consecutive quarter of shipment declines. The drop for serial inkjet MFPs was just 1.3 per cent.
On the vendor leader board, HP maintained top spot with 49 per cent, but it faced continued pressure from Canon, Brother and new entrant Kodak, which managed to grab four per cent of the market as it continues an aggressive move into new retail channels.
Overall, the report expects continued weakness in the printing industry going forward.
“There are no indicators it will improve anytime soon,” said Gartner.