New data released by IDC reveals that in the Western European HCP market, MFP shipments have continued to fall, but revenues are “more stable”.
The Western European MFP market declined by 6.7 percent, IDC reports, compared with the same period in 2017. However, “on a more positive note the market values declined at a much lower rate of 2.1 percent as the market continued to transition to higher-speed devices and colour A3 devices.”
The laser market performed better than predicted, dropping by only 1.2 percent, while the colour and monochrome shipments “remained relatively stable”, colour shipments rising marginally and monochrome shipments falling just a little in terms of units.
The inkjet sector performed most poorly in terms of unit growth, “with 3Q shipments registering a 9 percent decline even though revenues declined at a slower rate.” The majority of OEMs producing inkjet devices demonstrated “lower sales”, due to a fall in demand from home users and business consumers alike. However the business inkjet market “is showing signs of transition as higher-priced and higher-specification devices are shipping in place of entry-level models”.
“The HCP market will show an overall decline in 2018 as the market transitions away from the printed page to the digital page, but the Western Europe market remains a sizeable opportunity for many,” said Phil Sargeant, Program Director in IDC’s Western European Imaging, Hardware Devices, and Document Solutions group. “Print remains an important attribute for many companies and it’s clear that there are many transitions and opportunities that remain in areas such as colour, ink, and even monochrome. Those suppliers utilising their IT services, security, and environmental policies are seeing some success as a result.”
The main highlights of IDC’s findings are as follows:
- The overall Western European hardcopy market “contracted by 6.7 percent year on year in 3Q18, recording a shipment figure of 4.8 million units.”
- The main area of growth was in A3 business inkjets, which IDC states is “an area that many OEMs are now beginning to focus more on.”
- In the laser markets “overall colour showed slight growth and though monochrome overall declined there was strong demand for A4 MFP products.”
- 85 percent of all hardcopy shipments are now from MFP products, which IDC says is an increase from the same period a year ago and from the previous quarter of 2Q18.
In terms of country highlights, IDC examined the “big 3 markets of Germany, France and the UK” and illuminated the differences among them. 
In Germany the market declined by 5.6 percent in Q3, with shipments “in line with the European averages.” Both ink and laser markets “contracted”, with the sole area of growth being the consumer inkjet market. However, “colour printer markets increased slightly and in the production sphere there were increases in the amount of hardcopy shipments that were installed.”
In France, shipments registered a “strong decline” of 15.2 percent, causing it to drop below the level of the UK despite France having had a good market in the second quarter. There were “few areas of growth” apart from the double-digit growth reported by the A4 colour MFP market.
Finally, in the UK, overall shipments fell by 1.4 percent, meaning the UK market “performed better than most other countries and saw some strong growth in the laser markets where both colour and monochrome shipments increased in 3Q18.” While inkjet shipments dropped, business inkjets registered double-digit growth.
