After eight successive quarters of decline, the Middle East and Africa hardcopy peripherals market finally returned to a state of positive growth during the third quarter of 2013, with shipments up 6.6% year on year to total 1,472,000 units, according to the IDC.
It was a different story for revenues, however, with the market’s value showing a modest decline of 1.0% over the same period.
Shipment growth was seen across most countries in the region, with the emerging markets of North Africa, Nigeria, and Sub-Saharan Africa being the main drivers of this performance. Among the more developed markets only the UAE and Turkey showed growth, while shipments in Saudi Arabia remained flat and South Africa posted a decline.
“Notwithstanding the political strife in Syria, Egypt, and parts of North Africa, the MEA region has once again proved to offer one of the most sustainable growth opportunities in the world for print vendors,” said Ashwin Venkatchari, Senior Programme Manager, Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions, IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. “We believe that this encouraging development is organic in nature given the balance between increased tender activity among public sector entities and large enterprises and the increased SMB opportunities presented by improvements in the region’s macroeconomic environment.”
“Technologies such as multifunction printers (MFP) and digital copiers have shown sustainable growth across most of the region’s markets,” added Venkatchari. “At the same time, an increasing number of vendors are showing a keen interest in introducing managed print services (MPS) and document solutions to their portfolios as they look to move away from their traditional business models.”
HP continued to dominate the MEA HCP market’s volume with 52.9% share, following an impressive 9.0% year-on-year increase in shipments. Canon followed in second place with 20.6% unit share, while Samsung placed third with 17.2%. Brother and Epson rounded out the top five vendors at 4.9% and 4.4%, respectively, with Epson suffering a 31.1% year-on-year decline in shipments due to its withdrawal from the entry-level inkjet segment.
