The copier market in India has shown resilience, as per the IDC quarterly state-level Copier tracker the shipments were 1.07 million units in CY2013. This represents a 1% decline compared to previous year CY2012.
The color printer segment, showed 20% year-on-year growth, with mid-segment average selling Value and above price-band models.
15 major states contributed up to 88% of the State-Level A3 MFP Market (copier-based) in India.
In Maharashtra, Mumbai contributed more than 50% of the state’s copier sales output. Being the financial, commercial and entertainment capital, Maharashtra contributes a good quantity of sell-through from the mid-segment in addition to the entry-level segment (which contributes the maximum in every state.)
Where in Delhi, the national capital and center for Government, Defense and Public Sector, technology procurement continued. Given almost all copier vendors are headquartered in and around Delhi, they can maximize their focus in these customer segments, particularly in Q1, which is the last quarter of the financial year.
In Karnataka, Bangalore is the major contributor being the hub of Information (IT/ITES) companies. Interestingly, IDC observed that a lot of major companies were setting up their branches in tier II & tier III cities of Karnataka such as Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli.
Rahul Kanwar, Senior Research Manager-Channel Research, IDC India said, “Tier III states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are growing at 12% year-on-year. Adoption of copiers as the primary printing device as opposed to MFP, Printer-based is due to increased printing demand from the SMB and Jobbers segment is the major reason behind this growth.”
The A3 MFP (copier based) market was led by Canon, followed closely by Ricoh and Konica Minolta occupying the third spot in CY2013.
A sense of relief prevailed in the color printer segment. In Q4, the color printer segment observed a growth of 9% sequentially and 18% year-on-year. The top 3 market leaders in color for CY2013 were Konica Minolta with 27% market share, followed by Ricoh (26%) and Canon (24%).
Joydeep Dey, Senior Market Analyst-Channel Research, IDC India said, “The growth in the color segment has started picking up as well as a gradual shift towards Managed Print Services. Maintaining profitability by selling higher priced models or service contracts was the key mantra for all vendors to survive in a volatile market dynamics last year however from a vendor prospective the trend of end customer moving from Capex to Opex model is envisaged this year.”
