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Slow Quarter for Western Europe Printer/Copier Market, Severe Decline for Standalone Inkjet Printers

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Country Highlights

Germany

The German market followed the overall Western European negative trend with a 14.8 percent decrease, which followed a 7.9 percent decrease in third-quarter 2015. The business-inkjet market was also a lot weaker than the Western European average, with a decline at 11.7 percent compared with the regional average of -0.8 percent. The laser market in Germany showed negative growth for the third quarter, although color devices showed a lesser decline than black-and-white devices. The inkjet market also decreased, by 20 percent, with consumer inkjet showing a 23-percent decrease.

Both MFPs and printers saw strong declines, with a 16.2-percent decline for MFPs and a 10.3 percent decline for printers.

France

France performed better than the Western European average, but still showed an overall decline of 0.4 percent in fourth-quarter 2015 versus fourth-quarter 2014. Inkjet declined, but laser showed 3.1 percent growth.

The consumer markets for inkjet declined 2.2 percent, a little less than last quarter, and there was a hopeful 4.3 percent increase for business inkjet, contrasting strongly with the negative trend seen in Western Europe. MFPs decreased for inkjet (3.3 percent), but laser MFPs increased by an impressive 17.7 percent.

The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom recorded a poor performance in fourth-quarter 2015, with a 2.2 percent decline, following the negative trend seen in Western Europe, only higher. On the other hand, business-inkjet performed “fantastically well,” in contrast with Western Europe’s decline, with a 16.6-percent increase. Both the laser and inkjet markets declined, but there was positive growth in the A4-printer segment for both technologies.

(Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, February 2016.)

For more information about IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker in EMEA, contact IDC’s Phil Sargeant at psargeant@idc.com.

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