Inkjet MFPs help push W European Distribution Printer sales up in Q2 2015

Aug. 19, 2015 - PRLog -- London - Printer Hardware unit sales by Western Europe’s IT distributors continued to steady as sales increased by +1% year-on-year in Q2 2015, driven mainly by multi-function devices, according to data published by CONTEXT, the leading European IT market analysis company.

“Sales of Inkjet Multi-Function Printers (MFPs) through IT distributors increased by +4% and continued to account for 60% of all printer hardware sold in the region”, said Zivile Brazdziunaite, Imaging Market Analyst at CONTEXT. “HP and Canon were responsible for most the growth with year-on-year increases for the period of +5% and +17% respectively.”

As the switch from single-function to multi-function devices continues, unit sales of Laser Single-Function Printers (SFPs) declined -10% in Q2 2015, while sales of Laser MFPs were up by +6%.  Despite this, Laser MFP revenues declined by -6% because of further falls in ASPs (Average Selling Prices), particularly that of Colour Laser MFPs, which dropped from €739 to €635. The decrease in ASPs is due to harsh vendor competition in the category and changes in the product mix as copier vendors continue to increase the number of A4 models they offer.

While unit sales of high-priced A3 Colour Laser MFPs declined, those priced under €1499 grew  +22% year-on-year. Here Samsung is the leader, with a market share of 37%, followed by Xerox (29%). Oki has grown to third position with unit sales up 15 percentage points over the year to reach 17% in Q2 2015.

Printer hardware sales in Western Europe through the region’s IT distributors varied according to country, reflecting individual economic conditions. Spain grew fastest with unit sales up +19% , with France (+9%) and Germany (+1%) following.  Italy sales remained flat, and in the UK unit sales declined by -4% year-on-year in Q2 2015 as both vendors and distributors worked to manage inventory levels.

Country split
Q2-15 (unit sales)

Germany 1%

Italy 0%

UK -4%

France 9%

Spain 19%

Netherlands -9%

Switzerland -8%

Sweden -3%

Belgium 15%

Austria 23%

Denmark -14%

Finland -14%

Norway 15%

About CONTEXT
Headquartered in London with over 200 staff in 15 countries, CONTEXT specialises in tracking technology sales and pricing across the globe. Supported by the largest Distribution Channel Sales Database in the world, CONTEXT tracks Channel sales in most countries across EMEA where we are the official data partners with all members of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC). CONTEXT reports and services enable our customers to assess their business operations in the light of actual sell out figures, and make business critical decisions based on hard data. Follow us on Twitter: @contextworld.com or visit our website: www.contextworld.com