Overall India A4 PC Printer Sell-Throughs In Top 45 Cities Touch Nearly 6 Lakh Units During July-August-September 2011 Recording A 4% Growth Quarter-On-Quarter

Laser printers show the highest growth of 5%

Mumbai : The overall India PC printer sell-throughs in top 45 cities touched nearly 6 lakh units during the July-August-September 2011 quarter recording a 4% sequential growth on account of pre-festive buying by consumers and investments in capital goods by corporates and SMBs to avail full fiscal year depreciation benefits. This was revealed in a study titled India 45-City Monthly PC Printer Market Review, 3Q 2011 released in December 2011 by premier IT, Telecoms, Semiconductor & Electronics, Government, Entrepreneurship, Energy & Healthcare and User research firm CyberMedia Research.

Table 1. India 45-City PC Printer Tier II Channel Sell-throughs (lakhs of units) by Form Factor and Growth Trends (%): July-September 2011 vs. April-June 2011*

* Source: CyberMedia Research India 45-City Monthly PC Printer Market Review, 3Q 2011, December 2011

In the overall India A4 PC printer market, HP maintained its leadership position with a 57% share in terms of unit sell-throughs during 3Q 2011 followed by Canon and Epson, respectively. Samsung was placed fourth during the same period.

CMR data shows that Epson and Canon saw significant growth in market share, while HP saw slight growth in the third quarter of 2011. Put together HP, Canon, Epson and Samsung, the top 4 vendors, accounted for 93% of total market in the third quarter of 2011.

In terms of Inkjet A4 PC printer sales, HP led with a 73% share of unit sell-throughs followed by Epson and Canon, respectively during 3Q 2011.

In Laser A4 PC printer sales, HP retained the top spot with a 51% units share. Canon and Samsung grabbed the second and third places, respectively.

In DMP sales, Epson was the leader with a 50% share in terms of units, followed by TVSe and WeP.

India A4 PC printer market pans out by region

The present coverage of the CyberMedia Research study indicates that southern India contributes the maximum, as much as 30% of all A4 PC printer sales, followed by northern India, western India and eastern India, in that order.

“Printer sales in the eastern India region were slow in 3Q 2011 due to heavy monsoon rains during July and August that impacted the movement of goods by road and rail. At the same time, overall printer supplies were impacted due to political agitations over the Telengana issue in Andhra Pradesh”, stated Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead Analyst, PCs, Peripherals, Accessories and IT Channels, CyberMedia Research Infotech Practice.

Among the top four players, HP had maximum sales from northern India followed by southern India, while Canon had more than half of their sales originating from southern and western India. Epson received equal contribution from southern India and western India, followed by eastern India. Samsung recorded maximum contribution from southern India.

Table 2. India 45-City A4 PC Printer Vendor Share Trends (%):
July-September 2011 over April-June 2011

 * Source: CyberMedia Research India 45-City Monthly PC Printer Market Review, 3Q 2011, December 2011

“In the inkjet category, while competition remained stable, Epson grew by 15% in 3Q 2011, largely due to the introduction of two new models, L100 and L200, which are positioned to deliver low cost printing”, Sumanta added.

“In the laser category, Canon and Samsung grew by 12% and 11%, respectively at the cost of HP. Shortage of supply in 3Q 2011 hit HP the most, whose sales dropped 18% in eastern India alone. Canon experienced the maximum growth in A4 Laser single function printer; however, Canon also faced supply issues in multifunction printers. Restructuring of distribution in western India had slowed down Canon in 2Q 2011. Samsung witnessed a growth of 11% owing to launch of models ML1676 and 3201G, which are compatible with ‘chip less’ toners. With supplies returning to normalcy, HP is likely to extend its lead in 4Q 2011”, Sumanta opined.

The sell-throughs for other vendors like Brother, Panasonic, Xerox also increased in the A4 PC printer market in different regions across India during the July-September 2011 quarter.

Key Trend Analysis

“There is an increasing trend of adoption of multifunction printers especially in the inkjet category. Drop in price differentials as well as running costs are encouraging SMB enterprises to go in for inkjet multifunction printers”, stated Narinder Kumar, Analyst, Peripherals, Accessories and IT Channels, CyberMedia Research Infotech Practice.

“Vendors have had to re-introduce models compatible with chip less toners in the past one year. Continued dominance of Canon 2900B and in response, re-launch of models like HP 1020plus and Samsung ML 1676 have proved that Indian printer buyers are not yet ready to accept chip based toner-printers”, Narinder added.