IDC Finds Central and Eastern Europe Printer Markets Fell in 2Q2013

An IDC report finds the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) hardcopy peripherals market declined by 10.3% in 2Q2013, compared with the same period last year. Over 1,696,000 unit shipments were reported.

The decline was mainly due to weak consumer demand caused by the struggling economies and high unemployment rates in the region. Russia, the biggest market in CEE, reported a 14.3% year-on-year (YoY) drop in unit shipments—another major contributor to the decline.

IDC said that the demand for inkjet devices was inflated by bundled deals in the past. Mitri Roufka, IDC’s Research Director for imaging, printing, and document solutions in the CEMA region, explains, “Vendors’ efforts to replace their inkjet lines with higher-value devices that use less expensive consumables have brought an end to the bundles that characterized the inkjet market. As a result, a more realistic picture of demand is emerging. Inkjet vendors are increasingly targeting small and medium-sized businesses with these new devices: Such businesses are responsible for generating almost 76% of all pages produced in the small office home office (SOHO) segment.”

The market for laser devices, on the other hand, remained strong in this year’s second quarter. Although it reported a 3.8% YoY decline in shipments (mainly because of Russia) in the first half of 2013, IDC claimed the laser device market in CEE is positive. As Roufka puts it, “Printing remains a core need despite the turbulent business environment, and companies continue to refresh their printing fleets. The small decline is indicative only of broader economic difficulties, inevitably a significant factor in determining businesses’ IT investments.”

IDC suggest that competition among laser manufacturers is intensifying, because “End-users are increasingly looking to reduce printing costs by eliminating inefficiencies; replacing single-function and lower-speed devices with MFPs and/or faster devices with lower TCO; streamlining workflow and document processes to reduce page counts; or shifting to third-party (non-OEM) consumables”.