MFPs Drive Up MEA Hardcopy Peripherals Market

According to IDC, markets in the Middle East and Africa (MEA)  reported a 6.6% year-over-year (YoY) increase in hardcopy peripherals shipments in the third quarter of 2013. Shipments totaled 1,472,000 units. This region witnessed 8 successive quarters of declines prior to 3Q2013.

Most emerging regions in MEA saw growth in 3Q2013. North Africa, Nigeria, and Sub-Saharan Africa had the most significant increase during this period. In the more developed markets, only the UAE and Turkey showed growth, while shipments in Saudi Arabia remained flat and South Africa posted a decline.

HP, with a 52.9% share in the MEA hardcopy peripherals market, saw a 9% YoY increase in shipments. Canon, Samsung, Brother and Epson rounded out the top five vendors with 20.6%, 17.2%, 4.9% and 4.4% increases, respectively. Due to its withdrawal from the entry-level inkjet segment, Epson suffered a 31.1% YoY decline in printer shipments in 3Q2013.

In the same quarter, 652,500 unit shipments and a 0.6% YoY revenue decline were reported in the MEA inkjet market. According to IDC, “Inkjet devices priced below $100 posted a moderate year-on-year growth of 9.0%, which was a primary contributor to the decline in overall inkjet revenues. Shipments in this price segment contributed almost 70% of the overall inkjet units shipped during the quarter. Less than 85% of all inkjet devices shipped were multifunction printers (MFPs), shipments of which increased 2.1% YoY, while single function printers (SFPs), based on inkjet, declined 9.2% in unit terms.

The monochrome laser market, on the other hand, reported 648,000 unit shipments, up 12.8% compared to the same period last year. But revenue of this segment declined 3.8% YoY. As for the color laser market, MEA reported 130,000 unit shipments, up 28.2% in unit terms and 13.5% in revenue.

MFPs became the driving force in 3Q2013. Shipment of monochrome laser MFPs were up 26.1% YoY. Meanwhile, demand from captive markets in Africa helped drive a 3.5% increase in monochrome laser SFPs. Color laser MFPs, which represented over 63% of the color laser market’s volume, reported a 33.1% YoY increase in shipments.

Ashwin Venkatchari, IDC’s Senior Program Manager for imaging, printing, and document solutions in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, explained “Technologies such as multifunction printers and digital copiers have shown sustainable growth across most of the region’s markets. At the same time, an increasing number of vendors are showing a keen interest in introducing managed print services (MPS) and document solutions to their portfolios as they look to move away from their traditional business models.”