New distribution data published by IT market intelligence company CONTEXT has shown printer hardware sales in Western Europe are following the declining trend of 2017’s Q4 in Q1 of 2018.
Sales fell by 6 percent, compared to the same period from last year, with a 6 percent drop in inkjet MFPs also being recorded; inkjet MFPs account for more than 60 percent of printer hardware sales in Western Europe.
There was more encouraging news in the Laser MFP category, which was the only one to register an increase in sales, albeit a small one. CONTEXT state that this positive performance was mainly driven by A4 colour and A3 laser MFPs.
In more positive news, revenue from distributor sales in Western Europe rose from the previous quarter, but was still 3 percent lower compared to Q1 in 2017. Distributors in most Western European countries saw a decline in unit sales, although exceptions such as France (with a 5 percent year-on-year increase in consumer inkjet sales) and the United Kingdom bucked the trend. Distributors in Spain, meanwhile, witnessed a drop in sales of consumer inkjets of 11 percent.)
From an OEM perspective, Samsung now holds the third largest market share of the laser device market, with a 2.5 percent improvement, whereas HP saw a year-on-year dip of 1 percent – although still leads the field, with Brother in second. HP’s Q4 2017 acquisition of Samsung’s print business also produced a strong increase for the OEM in A3 business inkjet hardware market share.
