By Paul Kunert
19 August 2008
The UK
printer market has suffered in the first six months of the year due to the
economic downturn with sales falling nearly 8% and many of the major vendors
posting significant declines.
According to market data from Gartner, more than 2.5m
devices were shipped in the UK,
a drop of 7.5% year-on-year, with serial inkjet and laser segments falling 8%
and 2% respectively.
Blame for the market performance can be attributed to the
current economic climate, said Tosh Prabhakar, senior research analyst at the
market watcher, as customers delay unessential purchases.
“The credit crunch that started in the US has spread to Europe,
and the threat of recession has hit consumers and businesses,” he told
Microscope.
Serial inkjet and laser segments account for 88% of all
printers, MFPs and copiers sold in the UK, with devices including dot
matrix making up the remainder.
During the period, Hewlett-Packard grew 2% to hold 40.9%
market share while Epson and Canon posted growth of 19.5% and 47.8%
respectively to hold 22% and 13.6% share of UK sales.
But after seeing its fortunes decline in 2007, Lexmark sales
plummeted nearly 60% for the six months in 2008 and market share fell from
19.8% to 8.5% year-on-year.
“Lexmark has shot itself in the foot,” Prabhakar, “it
withdrew from the low-end to focus on the high-end workgroup space but the
portfolio is not as extensive as rivals.”
Brother UK
suffered to a lesser extent but was the other major top five player to see its
sales fall 22.5% and market share drop from 5.3% to 4.4%.
Unlike the notebook market where price declines have helped
to sustain demand, a 10% decline in printer average sale prices (ASPs) was not
enough to whet the appetite of consumers or businesses said Gartner.
