Indian printer market grows 3.5% in Q3 2004, HP leads

Mumbai: Hewlett-Packard retained its market leadership at 37.4 per cent followed by Epson at 23.7 per cent and Canon at 12.1 per cent market share (see table). Epson and Canon recorded positive year over year growth rates at 30.0 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively against HP's decline by 14.2 per cent.

The total printer shipments in the Indian printer market in the third quarter of 2005 were 349,000, a 3.5 per cent increase quarter over quarter. This includes dye sublimation, line and serial dot matrix printers, single function inkjet and laser printers. In comparison to the same period in 2003, the total printer unit shipment increased by 2.9 per cent.

Page printer shipments declined 3.2 per cent from 70,400 units in Q2 2004 to 68,200 units in Q3. The negative growth rate was caused by the decreased monochrome page printer shipments at 3.5 per cent over last quarter but still recorded a 44.8 per cent increase year over year. The growth of colour page printer shipments recorded a 6.4 per cent increase over last quarter and 93.9 per cent increase year over year.

The single-function inkjet printer market recorded 173,000 units in Q3 by 0.2 per cent increase in units over last quarter. The inkjet multifunctional products (MFPs) shipments recorded 57,400 units with a 52.1 per cent increase in units over Q2 2004 and a 70.4 per cent increased in units over the same period in 2003.

"The major growth in the market mainly came from the14.7 per cent increased shipments of serial dot matrix printers over last quarter as a result of printer replacements and increased consumer demands in different segments of the printer market in Q3," said Jackie Yeung, analyst for hardware and systems, Asia / Pacific, Gartner.

Yeung added, "The competitive pricing, and multiple function capabilities of inkjet MFP encouraged small office and home office (SOHO) and small and medium business (SMB) customers to purchase Inkjet MFPs rather than single-function printers."

Table 1: Indian Printer Market Share for Q3 2004 (units)

Company	Q3 2004 Market Shares	Q3 2003 Market Shares	Q3 2003 - Q3 2004 Growth
Hewlett-Packard	37.4%	44.8%	-14.2%
Epson	23.7%	18.8%	30.0%
Canon	12.1%	11.5%	8.3%
TVSE	10.0%	11.0%	-6.6%
WeP India	7.3%	7.5%	0.3%
Others	9.5%	6.4%	51.6%
Total	100%	100%	2.9%