FRAMINGHAM, Mass., May 16, 2012 -- The worldwide laser multifunction peripherals (MFP) market continued to exhibit double-digit growth during the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12), increasing 12% year over year with gains of 15% in emerging markets, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker. While overall shipments in the worldwide hardcopy peripherals market declined 7.4% year over year to 28.5 million units in 1Q12, the color laser MFPs shipments showed no sign of slowing down with 23% year-over-year growth in the quarter. Once again, emerging markets outpaced mature markets in the color laser MFP market, posting 36% and 18% year-over-year growth, respectively.

"IDC expects growth to remain strong in the emerging markets over the next two years," said Phuong Hang, program manager, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers. "We anticipate that in emerging markets vendors will continue to broaden their product lines into new market segments, especially those that take advantage of the anticipated digital document communications business. This may include related products such as educational facilities, digital display devices, and collaborative computing tools."

Technology Highlights

• Inkjet devices captured 62% of overall hardcopy shipments in the first quarter of 2012, down 1 point from a year ago, while laser devices increased 1 point to 35% over the same time period. Both emerging and mature markets experienced negative year-over-year growth in inkjet and laser technologies.

• The first quarter of 2012 marks the third consecutive quarter where color laser outperformed monochrome laser in terms of year-over-year growth, with more than 1.9 million units shipped for a 7% gain and resulting in 19% share. Likewise, the color laser segment in both emerging and mature markets saw better year-over-year results than monochrome laser. Overall, monochrome laser remains the dominant sub-technology, accounting for 81% share of the total laser market.

Vendor Highlights

• Despite a year-over-year decline of 12% in shipments, HP remains the global market leader with 40.3% share. As the market evolves, HP's strategy is to commit to its high volume businesses and focus on driving cost reductions and synergies across similar business units. By unifying marketing across PSG and IPG, as well as across the company overall, HP will not only improve efficiency but also enable marketing to have a greater impact on HP's business success.

• Epson ended the quarter in a statistical tie* with Canon for the number 2 position in the global hardcopy market with more than 4.6 million units shipped. The vendor grew 6.6% year over year and captured 16.2% share in the worldwide market. Epson enjoyed 18% year-over-year growth in mature markets compared to –4% growth in emerging markets.

• Canon also captured 16.2% worldwide market share in 1Q12 on 4.6 million units shipped, resulting in a statistical tie* with Epson for the number 2 position. Canon's total shipments declined 13.5% year over year, the worst results among the top 5, due to double-digit decrease in mature markets.

• Brother ended the quarter in the number 4 position with shipments of nearly 1.8 million units and year-over-year growth of 0.7%. Brother's performance was largely due to double-digit gains in emerging markets.

• Samsung rounded out the top 5 vendors worldwide with shipments of slightly more than 1.7 million units resulting in market share of 6.1% for the quarter.

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, May 2012

* Notes:

• IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide hardcopy peripherals market when there is less than one tenth of one percent difference in the shipments of two or more vendors.
• IDC tracks A2-A4 devices in the Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals
• Hardcopy Peripherals include single-function printers, printer-based multifunctional systems (MFPs), and single-function digital copiers (SF DC). Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.

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Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, May 2012

Notes:

• IDC tracks A2-A4 devices in the Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals
• Hardcopy Peripherals include single-function printers, printer-based multifunctional systems (MFPs), and single-function digital copiers (SF DC). Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.

For more information about IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, please contact Phuong Hang (Phang@idc.com).

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

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