European printer sales fall
Sales of inkjet and laser printers across Western Europe have declined 1.0 percent in the quarter as Europe’s economic slowdown hit business and consumer demand, according to data released by IT market research company CONTEXT.
“The effects of the economic slowdown were felt by those countries most affected, especially Greece where printer sales fell 35.1 percent in Q3 2011 compared to last year with sales down 6.1 percent in Spain,” says Jeremy Davies, co-founder and CEO at CONTEXT. In France, sales were flat with a year over year growth for Q3 2011 of 0.2 percent. Germany fared a little better, with a unit sales growth of 1.0 percent over the same period.
All-in-one inkjet printers, the leading category accounting for 68.1 percent of printers sold in EMEA, saw unit sales drop 2.1 percent in Q3 compared to the same period last year, with the largest decline of 20.0 percent in Central and Eastern Europe.
However, in a positive note, unit sales of all-in-one laser printers grew 20.0 percent over the same period, as buyers moved away from single-function machines and consumers across Western Europe stopped buying inkjet printers.
HP remained and grew slightly its top position as the region’s largest printer supplier accounting for 44.4 percent of total inkjet and laser printers sold. Canon also grew slightly to maintain second spot with 21.4 percent share but both Epson and Lexmark lost share in Q3.
In contrast, non printing devices are picking up. Analyst firm Canalys reported that Q3 2011 worldwide PC shipment volumes showed healthy year-on-year growth of 18 percent. The proliferation of pads drove overall PC market expansion, though the form factor continued to disrupt traditional desktop, notebook and, in particular, netbook sales.
Although total pad shipments were almost three times as many as in the same period a year ago, Apple's dominant 96 percent market share has slipped to 67 percent over the last 12 months as competition from vendors such as Samsung, Asus and Acer increases.
Apple sold 11 million iPads in the last quarter and this strong performance kept it firmly in second place in the total PC market with a 15 percent share, behind HP (16 percent) and ahead of Lenovo (12 percent), Dell (10 percent) and the struggling Acer (10 percent).
“Ongoing legal and media battles between Apple and its current closest competitor, Samsung, kept the top two pad vendors in the spotlight over the course of Q3,” says Canalys analyst Tim Coulling. “The result is that the pad market is being portrayed as very much a two-vendor race, with Samsung benefiting the most from the extra publicity on the global stage. In reality though, competition is intensifying as more vendors enter the market and seek to capitalise on growth opportunities.”
HP’s hasty dumping of its webOS based pad prompted a massive 560,000 unit sale of the heavily discounted product, “demonstrated that pricing is a critical factor in determining success,’ Coulling adds.
