According to IDC's Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals (HCP) Tracker, the combined printer and MFP market grew 6.3 percent year-on-year to reach 6.5 million units in Q1 2008. Laser MFPs continued to be a key driver, with nearly every country posting double-digit growth in this form factor as compared with the same period in 2007. HP remained the top HCP vendor in the region, although Samsung witnessed the strongest year-on-year as well as sequential growth among the top 5 vendors following its buoyant performance in the A4 laser MFP space.
“Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and South Korea had a robust quarter with quarter-on-quarter shipment growth between 23-35 percent. Laser MFP was the main catalyst of this growth in most of these countries. Government projects and the introduction of new models, especially from Samsung, were also significant factors. The phenomenal growth in Singapore was fueled by a general upswing in laser printer, inkjet and laser MFP shipments. The successful IT show in March was a perfect platform for vendors to promote their inkjet MFP bundles. All these coupled with large shipments volume of low-end monochrome and color laser printers made Q1 2008 a bumper quarter,” said Natasha Tan, Associate Research Director for IDC’s Asia Pacific Hardcopy Peripherals Research.
While many vendors in the North Asia market were affected by the long lunar holidays, particularly in PRC, it was a blistering quarter for vendors in South East Asia as many intensified their efforts to close in on their competition. Prices of A4 monochrome and color laser MFPs hit new low at $160 and $250 respectively following aggressive trade-in and end-user promotions.
The consumer market in Hong Kong witnessed a second straight quarter of decline. Vendors were largely dragged down by an overrun of inventories. End-user promotions could not help turn the corner as consumers stayed away from non-lunar holiday spending. It was a relief that increased corporate spending helped to stave off the otherwise slow market. The A3 laser MFP market grew 16.4 percent sequentially in conjunction with the fiscal year-end closing of most Japanese vendors. A number of vendors employed an intensive penetration pricing strategy on color machines during the quarter to wrestle for market share.
