Study explores South African printer market in Q2

06.09.2005
Von Computing SA

ICT market analyst, BMI-TechKnowledge, has announced the publication of its latest report, The SA Printer Report for Q2 2005.

The report claims that the printer market put on an impressive show in the peripherals industry, displaying year-on-year growth in all technology sectors, with the greatest growth contribution coming from the line printer segment.

The overall growth of the printer market in this quarter was 9.8 percent year-on-year, but quarter-on-quarter a 1.8 percent decline was experienced.

Kerry Hayes, research analyst at BMI-T, says: "The biggest decline occurred in the laser printer segments, with a 33.4 percent drop in overall shipments. Vendors are attributing the overall decline to a waiting period before clients" financial year-end budgets allow for new or renewed deals to boost the injection of machines into the consumer market place."

Inkjet machines displayed the smallest year-on-year growth of 0.5 percent, followed by serial dot matrix with 5.7 percent growth. Despite the quarter-to-quarter declines, laser followed with year-on-year growth of 35.1 percent, with line printers at the growth forefront with 87.8 percent unit growth.

"The growth in this market is outstanding, with quarter-to-quarter growth of 130 percent. Vendors are dicing for share of this tight market, closing big deals with significant parties, and growing its volume and value in their wake," comments Hayes.

"MFPs are not going to win this race easily," concludes Hayes, "printers are still firmly rooted in the consumer market, and BMI-T expects them to continue performing throughout the rest of 2005."