The worldwide printer market, which analyst firm IDC calls “hardcopy peripherals market”, declined 20.4% year over year in the third quarter of 2021 (3Q21) to nearly 21 million units shipped.
Manufacturing constraints and logistical issues were the main causes for most brands to not have enough inventory to fulfill orders.
Shipment value also decreased 11.0% year over year during the quarter to $9.2 billion, according to new data from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker.
Notable highlights from the quarter include the following:
- Epson and Kyocera Group were the best performers among the top 5 companies, increasing 0.9% and 9.8% year over year, respectively. Epson continued to expand in the ink tank market while Kyocera showed significant laser growth in the European market.
- Inkjet shipments in the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan and China) region saw the least impact from stock availability and logistics constraints. The region recorded a year-over-year decline of 4.8% with more than 2.2 million units shipped in the quarter.
- On a sequential basis, the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan and PRC) region witnessed an increase of 12.6% in inkjet shipments and 10.8% in laser. Many vendors were still facing challenges in production due to the shortage of semi-conductors. However, due to better allocation of stocks for their channels, both inkjet and laser markets in the region performed better than last quarter.
