IDC Finds Color Laser Shows Strong Performance Again

According to IDC, the shipment value of worldwide hardcopy peripherals (HCP) increased 1.7% year over year (YoY) to $15.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q2014). In the same period, shipments declined 2.6% YoY to 30.8 million units.

With 18.91 million units shipped, inkjet still makes up the majority of the market, but dropped 3.9% YoY. The laser segment recorded a growth of 0.2% YoY, with 10.69 million units shipped. Color laser shipments grew 8.0% YoY to 2.0 million units, but monochrome laser markets again contracted.

The single function printer market declined 4.5% YoY to 7.34 million units, and multifunction peripheral (MFP) shipments decreased1.7% YoY to 22.26 million units. However, MFPs showed strong performance in all color laser speed ranges, especially in the 31-44 ppm segment, growing 24.4% YoY.

Color devices captured a 19.2% market share, up 1.4% YoY, while the monochrome lost one point to account for 80.8% share in the quarter. Color’s YoY growth was 8.0% while mono laser fell 1.4%. The strongest color speed segment was the 11-20 ppm (33.0% share), where HP did particularly well with the Color LaserJet Pro M276 MFP model family.

Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ), the largest region in terms of HCP shipments, outperformed all other regions by achieving a 1.7% YoY increase in the quarter, due to the introduction of new models and channel expansions for a few major vendors.

Canon surpassed all other vendors in 4Q2014, with most of its positive YoY shipment growth coming from mature markets. In terms of share in unit shipment, HP led the market with 38% share. Canon took a 22% share, ranking second, followed by Epson, Brother and Samsung, with shares of 15.6%, 7.5% and 4.2%, respectively (see Figure below).

“In 2015, color laser is expected to widen its lead over monochrome laser worldwide. This is largely due to continued strong growth of color laser MFPs. While both color and monochrome laser MFPs are expected to grow in shipments and value in 2015, color laser growth is expected to be exponentially higher for both metrics. This worldwide trend is due to activity in both Western Europe and Japan, where color laser has dominated laser value shipments for some time,” said Phuong Hang, Program Director, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers.

You’re Welcome to Contact Us！
You can provide opinions and comments on this story!
Or you can send us your own story!
Please contact Doris Huang, Head of News & Editorial, via Doris.Huang@iRecyclingTimes.com