Clear signs of recovery as imaging
market grows for second quarter in a row
Signs of economic recovery seem to be
having a positive impact on the Western
European hardcopy market, as IDC reports a
second consecutive quarter of year-on-year
growth. Its analysis shows that in Q3 2013
the number of units shipped increased by
3.6% to over 5.76 million units, compared
with 5.56 million units a year ago.
Phil Sargeant, program director of IDC’s Western
European Imaging Hardware Devices and Document
Solutions Group, said: “A second growth quarter
clearly shows that market recovery is gaining
momentum and the recent gains of CY2Q were
not just a blip. Business and commercial markets
continue to lead the way with positive growth,
while consumer markets remain flat but at least
haven’t declined further and have stabilised.”
Arnaud Gagneux, director of IDC’s Western
European Imaging Printing and Document Solutions
Group, said: “We are seeing strong demand for
document management solutions and managed
services which is driving sales of smart devices,
printers or multifunctions that can communicate
with a wider mobile infrastructure. Business inkjet is
also becoming a profitable niche in the market with
more products being made available.”
The inkjet market increased year-on-year by
2.6%, driven by a 25.6% increase in business inkjet
sales; and the laser market grew by 6.5%, with a
7.5% increase in monochrome devices, compared
to 4.5% growth for colour devices. Serial impact
dot matrix markets declined year-on-year by 36.7%.
Of the big three European markets, the U.K.
showed the largest year-on-year percentage growth
of 12.1%. The laser market grew slightly while the
inkjet market showed solid growth of 15.0% to
become the second-largest inkjet market, ahead
of France. Business inkjet markets almost doubled
in size and consumer inkjet markets increased by
almost 10%.
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Konica Minolta is partnering with the St Bride Foundation to teach future generations about the value of
print as part of the communications mix. The St Bride Foundation is based off Fleet Street in what was
originally the Printing School. In addition to a library containing world-class exhibits, it boasts a workshop
full of historic printing systems and a theatre. As its Platinum Print Heritage Partner, Konica Minolta is
helping the charity to preserve its collection of printing artefacts and educate the public about print
through guided tours and other activities.
Sales of business inkjets like HP's Officejet Pro X
Series were up more than 25%.
Retail finance divisions
centralised in Bristol
BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions is moving
its Information Technology retail finance
division from Basingstoke to join its
telecoms and office equipment division in
Bristol.
The decision to centralise all retail finance
activity under one roof was taken in light of the
convergence of IT and business equipment in areas
such as managed print, unified communications
and enterprise software solutions.
Russ Pettifer, head of technology solutions
for BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, said: “Making
the move from Basingstoke to Bristol is the best
decision for our technology vendor partners and
end-user customers. By bringing these teams
together, we can improve communication between
all departments for a more efficient and cohesive
service delivery. We can make the whole division
easily available to partners and customers who
want to experience our breadth of capabilities and
benefit from our technical expertise to solve their
day-to-day business challenges.”
Double-digit growth
Further evidence of recovery in the
imaging market is provided by new
figures from market research company
Context, which show that hardware
imaging shipments in the UK were 27%
higher in Q3 2013 than in the same period
in 2012. Germany and Spain also recorded
double-digit growth, as Western Europe
achieved year-on-year growth of 7%.
Context imaging analyst Zivile Brazdziunaite
said: “Year-on-year unit shipments across EMEA
registered a positive growth in the third quarter
of this year mainly due to HP which increased
sell-in levels into EMEA by 17%. HP holds over
40% share in total shipments for this period
and saw positive growth through all imaging
categories year-on-year.”
