Worldwide Peripheral Sales Dip, IDC Reports 

The worldwide hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market experienced a small decline in the first quarter of 2015, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker. Total unit shipments declined by -2.5 percent year-over-year to 25.8 million, while the corresponding shipment value fell by -1.2 percent over the same period.

Despite these small declines, IDC identified the following positive accomplishments in this large market during the first quarter of the year:

• Color laser products grew 2 percent year-over-year.
• China was the most upbeat laser market in terms of year-over-year growth in Asia/Pacific. This region experienced a 9.8 percent expansion in the laser segment due to government purchasing and vendors aggressively pushing shipments into sales channels.
• Canon, Epson, and HP all enjoyed pockets of growth in certain regions. Canon enjoyed a strong quarter in North America with year-over-year growth of 22.4 percent and 20.4 percent in Canada and the United States, respectively. Epson had its most positive growth in the USA and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan). And HP experienced an 8.6 percent year-over-year gain in Western Europe.

Inkjet still makes up the majority of the market, but the best market growth is in certain laser segments. Specifically, color laser shipments grew 2.0 percent in 1Q15 to 2.0 million units.

Single function to Multifunction: The total single function printer market declined -8.0 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, and total multifunction peripheral (MFP) shipments decreased by -0.3 percent. However, MFPs showed strong performance in all color laser speed ranges, especially in 31-44ppm, growing 19.9 percent year-over-year.

Monochrome to Color: Color increased its overall share 0.8 percent from a year ago to 20.8 percent share versus its monochrome counterparts. Color's year-over-year growth was 2.0 percent while monochrome laser declined by -3.1percent. The strongest color speed segment was the 11-20 ppm (30.2 percent share), where HP did particularly well with the Color LaserJet Pro M476 MFP model family.

Move to Faster Speed Segments Accelerates: The 45-69 ppm monochrome laser MFP segment exhibited the strongest year-over-year growth in 1Q15 at 31.0 percent, followed by 45-69 ppm printer segment (6.4%) and 31-44 ppm MFP (2.4 percent). The mono laser 45-69 ppm segment's strong growth was fueled by the HP LaserJet Enterprise M602 family. In the color market, the 70-90 ppm MFP segment did well at 49.6 percent year-over-year growth, followed by 31-44 ppm at 19.9 percent and 1-10 ppm at 18.2 percent.

The A3/A4 battle in the mid-speed market segments continues. A4 MFP devices gained penetration in the 31-69 ppm monochrome segment with a 74.1 percent share of the total monochrome A3/A4 MFP market in the same speed segment. The 12.1 percent year-over-year growth of the A4 31-69 ppm MFP monochrome laser segment was driven by strong year-over-year results in the both A4 31-44 ppm (5.0 percent growth) and A4 45-69 ppm MFP segment (59.6 percent growth) with significant contributions from HP (29.2 percent) and Kyocera DS (24.5 percent).

About the author: Alison Diana

Managing editor of Enterprise Technology. I've been covering tech and business for many years, for publications such as InformationWeek, Baseline Magazine, and Florida Today. A native Brit and longtime Yankees fan, I live with my husband, daughter, and two cats on the Space Coast in Florida.