Inkjet Dominated Global Hardcopy Peripherals Market 4Q2013

Inkjet remains the dominant technology in the overall hardcopy peripherals market with more than 19.6 million units shipped, representing 62% share. Worldwide, inkjet shipments declined -1.1% year over year in 4Q13 and -4.9% for the full year 2013. However, the Western Europe inkjet market saw a solid gain of 8.0% year over year in 4Q13.

The worldwide hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market continued its recovery in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13).

The 31.7 million unit shipments in 4Q13 represented a year-over-year increase of 2.0% while shipments for the full year 2013 declined just -1.6%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker.

Contributing to the overall growth was the positive performance from the laser segment, which grew 4.5% year-over-year in 4Q13 and 3.6% for the full year 2013.

Another factor that contributed to the fourth quarter growth was the strong market activity from three of the top five vendors, most notably HP and Brother. HP has increased its channel support and has become more flexible on pricing and incentives (e.g., HP Rebate program).

Brother launched several products this year that expanded its presence in the monochrome laser space and allowed it to compete like never before in the market. As a result, both Brother and HP enjoyed solid year-over-year growth in 4Q13.

“2013 was a relatively good year for major hardcopy peripherals vendors as most reported a return to some level of growth. IDC anticipates that the recovery will continue at a slow and steady pace in 2014.

Effective sales execution will come from having a comprehensive product portfolio, of course, but more important is being well versed in the language of the customer,” said Phuong Hang, Program Director, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers.

The two largest market regions, Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) saw year-over-year shipment growth of 5.5% and 7.3%, respectively, in 4Q13. APeJ closed out the full year 2013 with 1.5% year-over-year growth while Western Europe had a small year-over-year decline of -0.4%.