India printer mkt declines 12.7% y-o-y in Q3: IDC

While the overall HCP market shall remain challenged in 2020, demand is expected to be normalised across both inkjet and laser printers by H1 2021 as supply issues for the vendors ease gradually," IDC India Senior Research Manager (IPDS) Nishant Bansal said. Demand from SMBs (small and midsize business) and jobbers is critical to sustaining the momentum in the longer-term market recovery as the pent up consumer demand may ease in the next few quarters, he added.

India's hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market witnessed a decline of 12.7 per cent to 0.91 million units in the September 2020 quarter over the year-ago period, according to research firm IDC. However, on a sequential basis, the HCP (copiers and printers) market witnessed a 164.8 per cent growth during the third quarter as the country gradually opened up during the festival season with improving consumer sentiment, IDC said in a report on Wednesday.

HP accounted for the largest market share in the said quarter with 42.4 per cent share in the September 2020 quarter, followed by Canon (24.9 per cent), Epson (21.1 per cent), Brother (6 per cent) and Pantum (1.4 per cent). "The recovery seen in ink tank printers in Q3 2020 is expected to continue in Q4 2020 with festive buying in the fourth quarter. While the overall HCP market shall remain challenged in 2020, demand is expected to be normalised across both inkjet and laser printers by H1 2021 as supply issues for the vendors ease gradually," IDC India Senior Research Manager (IPDS) Nishant Bansal said.

Demand from SMBs (small and midsize business) and jobbers is critical to sustaining the momentum in the longer-term market recovery as the pent up consumer demand may ease in the next few quarters, he added. IDC said in the inkjet segment, vendors continued to face supply issues throughout the quarter as their manufacturing hubs in China and Southeast Asian countries grappled with the unprecedented global surge in demand for inkjet printers from the Home segment.

Due to the supply issues, the ink tank segment noted a y-o-y (year-over-year) decline of 6.9 per cent in the quarter under review, yet it continued to increase its share over the ink cartridge segment from the same time a year ago, it added. The laser segment (including the copier segment) suffered an even sharper y-o-y decline of 17.3 per cent following the drop in demand from the commercial segment.

The situation improved significantly from the June 2020 quarter as the lockdown eased with some corporates and SMBs resuming office operations with a limited workforce while a majority continued operating on work-from-home mode. For similar reasons, the laser copier segment too witnessed a y-o-y decline of 36.8 per cent to date, IDC said.

"As lockdown restrictions gradually eased, consumer demand saw significant growth within the HCP market. Demand for Wi-Fi and multi-function ink tank categories rebounded significantly," IDC India Market Analyst (IPDS) Bani Johri said. Within the overall inkjet segment, ink cartridge-based printers also saw healthy demand from smaller cities as a section of consumers did not want to pay the premium for ink tank printers, Johri added.

In the laser printer segment, government procurement resumed to some extent, whereas, enterprise and jobber demand continued to remain muted owing to the closure of schools and offices, Johri said..

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