Despite the shortage of raw materials in the fourth quarter of 2021, hardcopy peripherals or HCP (inkjet and laser printers and SDM or shape deposition manufacturing recorded a 9.8% year-on-year (YoY) and 5.2% quarter-on-quarter growth for the first quarter of 2022 (1Q22). The figures are based on the International Data Corp.’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker.

According to IDC, the overall growth in 1Q22 was mostly driven by inkjet printers with 13.9% growth YoY.

“Most inkjet brands were able to secure good allocation despite the ongoing stock issues while the market continues to benefit from consumer demand and recovery of smaller and medium businesses,” IDC said in a media advisory.

Philippines’ printer demand sustains despite ongoing shortages — IDC
Emerging technologies top trends for 2020

However, the laser printer market dropped by -32.2% YoY.

“The start of the year for the overall HCP market appeared to be promising despite the surge of COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant,” said Lilibeth Agudo, IPDS market analyst at IDC Philippines. “It did not seem to affect the overall demand, but it affected the stocks, not just in the Philippines but also in the other countries. No brand is exempted, and we did see a fair share of shortages across the board. They became more resourceful in their allocations and offerings to make sure that all demands are met without compromising specific segments or industries.”

Top brands

Epson remains to be the market leader in the overall home/office printer market for 1Q22 holding 50.7% market share, despite showing a decline of -1.8% YoY. According to IDC, it continues to face stock challenges that affected both its ink cartridge and ink tank line ups. There has been a significant drop in their WorkForce series models and their L-series models remain to hold the biggest share in their inkjet SKUs.

Canon maintains its second spot with 19.9% of share registering a significant YoY growth of 53.9%. Mostly driven by their inkjet products, which showed the highest annual growth at 61.5%. In the previous quarters, Canon’s inkjet allocation has been very minimal which resulted in a lot of backorders from its partners. In 1Q22, Canon was able to secure more allocation which helped them fulfill a few pending orders which were mostly targeted toward retail and consumer demand. The laser market, in contrast, has been seen to be more affected by the global shortage, specifically its laser printer machines. There has been a huge decline coming from mid to high segment and stocks were more on the low segment which they also position on retail. Copier market showed a slight increase because of a couple of projects won for the commercial segment.

HP kept the third position with 15.6% of share but continues to record a significant growth at 27.7% year-on-year. The consistent growth of its inkjet printer products due to better acceptance in the market and good allocation contributed to the 35.8% annual growth. HP also been consistently seeing good performance in their ink tank models which they continue to promote not just for consumers but also for commercial segments, especially smaller businesses. The copier market is recovering well as opportunities started to come in from both government and commercial accounts after quarters of less demand. Printer-based on the other hand, despite being more affected by the stock constraints, have seen good opportunities from government and corporate segments as continue to improve as more offices reopen even with hybrid setup. This is a combination of renewals, additional, and new requirements.