IDC Finds 30% Decline in Thailand’s Printer Consumable Market for 4Q2013

IDC Tracker shows that printer consumable market in the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region decreased 2.4% and declined 4.6% year-on-year to US$1,652.14 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. Thailand market has presented quarter-on-quarter decrease of 30% and year-on-year decline of 20%.

IDC said the major factor affecting the market was the political instability in Thailand, which has led to drastic decline in channels, consumers’ business sentiments and market. The gloom of decline has loomed over every segment of the market.

According to the analysts, printers with lower cost of operations and cartridges with high page yield at economic prices are becoming popular. Therefore, OEMs are gaining share in ink cartridge market, while third party vendors are gaining share in laser toner market. Third party brands have contributed US$370 million, representing around 22% of the total market value. Though OEMs are also catching up in laser toner market, the price gap between OEM toner cartridge and third party toner cartridge is still a problem. So at present, third party vendors are more popular among consumers and enterprises in the value sensitive Asia market.

Pankaj Chawla, Research Manager for IPDS Research at IDC Asia/Pacific, stated, “Third Party vendors are now changing their business model and emerging as solution providers rather than merely box-pushers. Third party vendors are offering free printers, printers on rent, printers’ maintenance and repair services along with printer cartridges. Third party vendors are also entering in BPS/MPS (Basic Managed Print Services) business and offering solutions like pay per page, pay per cartridge and volume commitment options. Some other third party vendors are scaling up their business model by partnering with software vendors and offering remote operating of printers through MPS.”