The printing market took a sharp dip for the second quarter of 2019, according to analyst firm IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker.
The report had nasty for inkjet shipments – down 6.6 percent – and also for laser machines, down 3.5 percent.
But there were also a few brighter spots, namely:
- Ink Tank devices grew 3.4 percent in unit shipments, led by Epson which managed to ship over two million units in 2Q19.
- Shipments of colour laser multi-function machines grew two percent, albeit in a market of just 1.4 million units for 2Q19.
- Printers are big in Japan, where year-over-year increase of 4.7 percent meant more than 1.1 million units shipped for the quarter.
HP Inc remains on top of the printer hill and even managed growth in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) and the US markets, respectively.
As IDC’s table above shows, all of the top five vendors went backwards in Q2 2019. HP Inc dominates the market, with Canon and Epson jostling for second place.
But they're all battling for a declining market, as paperless offices edge closer to reality and digital marketing makes words-on-paper less relevant.
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