Growth in Aust printer market: IDC

The Australian printer market has seen growth quarter on quarter, according to industry analyst IDC.

It found that the total printer market shipped 470,000 units in Q2 this year -- that was a nine percent quarter-on-quarter increase, according to a statement issued by IDC.

It included inkjet single function and multifunction (MFP) printers, single function laser and serial dot matrix (SDM) printers. Overall, the total printer market had grown 12 percent compared to the same period last year, IDC found.

Su-Lin Ng, printer analyst at IDC, said inkjet MFPs had continued to steal marketshare from inkjet single function printers and were just short of 50 percent marketshare in the first half of this year.

"In the second quarter, inkjet MFPs gained 52 percent of the total inkjet market, in comparison to 46 percent share gained in Q1 2004," Ng said. "It is expected that this trend will continue as vendors are shifting their focus away from single function inkjets to drive the uptake of inkjet MFPs."

The industry analyst also found that the mono laser printer market reached 58,000 units in Q2, and there were 12,000 colour laser units shipped in Q2.

"The rapid decline in prices for colour laser printers has definitely increased the demand by end users," Ng said. "Price continues to be a big driver for the uptake of colour laser printers, especially in the small business market who can now print in colour using the laser technology at a lower purchase cost, where some prices have hit as low as under $800."