Gartner Says EMEA Printer, Copier and Multifunctional Product Market Declined 24 Per Cent in First Half of 2009

Press release

Egham, UK, August 20, 2009 -

The combined printer, copier and multifunctional product (MFP) market in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) totalled nearly 18 million units in the first half of 2009, a 24.4 per cent decline over first half of 2008 shipments, according to Gartner, Inc.

"The impact of the global recession has been detrimental for consumers, businesses and vendors respectively during the first half of 2009," said Tosh Prabhakar, senior analyst at Gartner. "Banks and finance institutions continue to hold back on lending, limiting the availability of credit for investment in new hardware devices. With reduced budgets, businesses cannot invest in new equipment and continue to hold onto existing devices, which as a result is hampering new sales and impacting revenues for the print vendors. However, as vendors see hardware sales decline, there is an upturn in vendors widening their document management software and services capabilities to help businesses reduce and better manage costs."

In the EMEA printer, copier and MFP market, each of the top-five vendors recorded a decline in the first half of 2009 (see Table 1). The vendors worst hit by the global recession were Hewlett-Packard and Canon which saw their shipments fall 31.5 per cent and 25.8 per cent respectively.

"We foresee the market in the second half of the year continuing to show double-digit decline, and in the worst-case scenario could reach a 30 per cent decrease," Mr Prabhakar said.

Table 1
EMEA Printer, Copier and MFP Unit Shipments Estimates, 1H09 (Thousands of Units)

Note: Total may not add up to 100 per cent due to rounding
Source: Gartner (August 2009)

"Now that many end-user organisations have frozen their hardware spending, vendors are increasingly looking at alternatives such as managed print services and document-managed software as ways to increase revenue," said Mr Prabhakar. "Vendors must sell services to businesses that will help them better control costs, save on running costs, reduce cost-per-page issues and consolidate devices."

Additional information is available in "Printer, Copier and MFP Quarterly Statistics EMEA: Database." The document is available on Gartner' website at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=520621&subref=simplesearch.