China's printer market gradually transfers from inkjet products to laser products
2008-08-14

China's printer market gradually transfers from inkjet products to laser products

Recently, CCID consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Stock Exchange:HK08235) released some report about the Chinese printer market in 2007 and 2008 Q2. In the report of 2007 printer market, it shows that the printer market will continue boosting because of the cutting prices.

According to the statistical data of CCID Consulting, 5.7979 millions of printers were sold in China during the first 3 quarters of 2007, up by 4.5% over the same period of the previous year. CCID consulting said that the main reason of the steadily growing in printer market sales is the falling prices. The lower prices drove more consumers close to purchasing. However, the growth rate was much lower than that of the same period of the previous year.

In the kinds of printer, the data shows that inkjet printer’s sold moderately, just the same level as that of 2006, however, the commercial inkjet printer continuing to sell well. Meanwhile laser printers have a fast development. According to the statistical data, during the first 3 quarters of 2007, the sale volume of laser printers reached 1.3095, up by 13.6% over the same period of last year. Here is the sales volume of printers in china in 2007.

Based on the data of Chinese printer sales volume in Q2 2008 from CCID consulting, we can see that the total sales volume of printer is decreasing because of the decline of inkjet printers. Facing inflation pressure, the growth rate of printer’ demands is slowing down, which resulted in depression in Chinese printer market. CCID Consulting's data shows that the sales volume of China's printer market in 2008Q2 reaches 1.9419 million sets, down 1.7% year-on-year. Sales revenue reaches 2.68 billion Yuan, down 0.3% year-on-year. China's printer market experienced its first downslide in 2008 Q2 in the past ten quarters. Among the printer products, inkjet printer products performed the worst. Its sales volume reaches 1.1803 million sets in 2008Q2, down 6.8% year-on-year, which is the major reason for the decline in China's printer market.

But, as for the high quality demands of the photos and the price cut in laser printers, especially the holding of Beijing 2008 Olympic Game, many people want to have clear photos of the athletes, laser printers are in a rapid growth. CCID Consulting's data shows that the sales volume of China's laser printer reaches 510,700 sets, up 110.1% year-on-year; the sales volume of China's dye-sublimation printer reaches 13,600 sets, up 36.5% year-on-year. Here is the sales volume and growth of china’s printer market in 2008 Q2.

As the rapid growth of laser printers, China's printer market gradually transfers from inkjet products to laser products. According to the data, market share of Laser printers has increased to 26.3% in 2008Q2, while it was only 19% in 2005. It shows that laser printer has gradually become one of the mainstream products. What’s more, laser printer’ market position will expand continually because of the advantage of the quickly cut in price.

More and more brands have appeared in China’ printer market, but the major brands’ presentations in 2008Q2 are Samsung, OKI and Brother, all have two-digit growth in sales volume. Meanwhile the sales volumes of HP and Canon decrease slightly, and many other brands like Lenovo also has a decease in sales volume. According to statistics, the sales volume of Lenovo printer in 2008Q2 is down 22.1% year-on-year.

As to the occupancy status of the market, some core brands are rapidly sharing the market.  According to CCID Consulting's statistics, HP, Epson and Canon held 78.5% of China's printer market in 2008Q2, up 2.5% year-on-year. And the top eight brands' concentration degree is 93.3%. Currently, printer products' core technologies are mastered by HP, Epson, Canon, Samsung and Brother, other manufacturers are difficult to break through this monopoly, and monopolistic competition becomes the major development formation of China's printer market. Here is the 2008Q2 Brand Sales Volume Structure of China's Printer Market .

According to the data, CCID Consulting also predicts China's future printer market development: 1. Networking will be the major laser printers in the future. 2. The changing demands of users User demand may stimulate a new round of printer market subdivisions. 3. The growing print load of enterprises encourages product replacement and updating. 4. The services at different levels could be provided along with market segmentation. 5. Industrial users require manufacturers to provide specific and valuable services, while home users want to get standard and convenient services.