Strong Growth In Printer, MFP Sales In India
February 22, 2010 - According to market-research firm Gartner Inc., sales of combined printers, copiers and MFPs in India grew a whopping 34.7 in the fourth quarter of 2009 versus fourth-quarter 2008. Combined shipments totaled nearly 0.7 million units in fourth-quarter 2009, up 18% percent versus 2009's third quarter.
Noted Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at Gartner, "This strong growth is the result of improving buyer confidence in the market. Smaller towns and cities outside of the major metropolitan cities, and small and medium businesses, were the growth drivers."
By vendor, Canon led with a 120% increase, followed by Samsung and Hewlett-Packard with 55% and 29% increases respectively. Except for Toshiba and Xerox, all others vendors enjoyed growth in the fourth quarter in India. HP led with 49.7% market share, which was twice that of its nearest competitor, Canon, which had 20.4% market share.
By category, Canon led with 23% market share in the A3 Flatbed Copier/MFP segment in the Indian 2009 fourth quarter, followed by Ricoh with 18% market share. In the A4 flatbed category, HP led with 35% market share, followed by Samsung with 28% market share.
Page-printer sales in the 4th quarter in India grew 53% versus 2008's fourth quarter. Canon enjoyed robust 182% growth versus 2008's fourth quarter, while Samsung experienced 51% growth, and HP's experienced 28% growth. HP's market share in this segment declined from 56% share in fourth-quarter 2008 to 47% share in fourth-quarter 2009, while Canon's share grew from 18% in fourth-quarter 2008 to 33% in fourth-quarter 2009.
In the ink-jet segment, HP sales growth was 26% in fourth-quarter 2009, but its market share declined by 2%, from 73% in fourth-quarter 2008 to 71% in fourth-quarter 2009. Meanwhile, Canon experienced 79% growth in fourth-quarter 2009 versus fourth-quarter 2008, and its market share grew from 12% in fourth-quarter 2008 to 17% in fourth-quarter 2009.
Espon was the leader in the dot matrix segment, experiencing a 12% increase in fourth-quarter 2009 in India versus fourth-quarter 2008.