Printer purchasing plans on standby
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Sales down 6%, Gartner finds
Economic uncertainty is causing offices and consumers to hold back on printer purchases.
According to industry research group Gartner, sales of consumer and office print devices were down 6% during the first half of 2008, compared to the same period last year.
However, year-on-year growth in the wider printer, copiers and multifunctional product (MFP) was evident across the Europe,
“Second-quarter results showing signs of an economic slowdown, which could continue into the rest of the year,” says Gartner’s Tosh Prabhakar.
The overall growth was bolstered by double-digit growth in Central Eastern Europe, the Middle East and
Although Hewlett Packard maintained the number one position in the overall EMEA printer, copier and MFP market, Samsung Electronics recorded the highest year-on-year market growth, with a 24.4% increase, while Lexmark continued to lose market share to the point where it has now dropped from the top five in terms of volumes shipped. That follows an 18-month restructuring that has seen the company shift focus to the more profitable high-end workgroup printer market.
HP grew shipments by 6%, and Canon by 10.6% but they trailed the expansion rate at Epson, where numbers were up 22.6%. In contrast, Brother shipped 0.9% fewer devices compared to the year’s earlier period.
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