MEA Exceeds CEMA in Document Imaging Scanner Installed Base

The Middle East and Africa document installed base and growth rates for DIS in the Middle East and Arica (MEA) region exceeds that in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), mainly owing to end-user preferences.

Meanwhile, the Central Europe and Middle East (CEMA) document imaging scanner (DIS) market posted a 2.7% quarter-on-quarter increase in shipments during Q1 2014 to total 96,373 units, according to IDC’s latest Document Imaging Scanner Tracker.

Market value increased by 11.4% in the same period to reach $139.2 million. Growth was mainly driven by demand for document solutions in key verticals such as finance (banking and insurance) and the public sector (military and egovernment projects).

As the installed base and growth rates for DIS in the Middle East and Arica (MEA) region exceeds that in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), mainly owing to end-user preferences, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek learnt that organizations in the regions have a greater tendency to use separate devices for printing and scanning, rather than multifunction peripherals (MFP).

This leads to lower replacement costs, yet higher flexibility and reliability. Reflecting this trend, DIS shipments in MEA increased 25.2% in Q1 2014, while the CEE market contracted by 33.4% during the same period.

“All CEMA DIS markets are far from saturation, and growth is expected throughout the 2014-2018 forecast period,” says David Mühlbach, research analyst at IDC CEMA. “This growth will be driven primarily by the need to access business content in digital format anywhere and the growing adoption of document solutions.”

The top five vendors in the CEMA region in Q1 2014 were Fujitsu, HP, Canon, Epson, and Kodak, which together accounted for over 80% market share.