Despite challenging market conditions, the wireless segment of the worldwide hardcopy peripherals market continued to show year-over-year growth in the second quarter of 2012 (2Q12).

While overall shipments declined by 8.4% to 26.5 million units, wireless volume increased 5.0% year over year to 9.1 million units in 2Q12, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker. Moreover, the wireless segment in mature markets outgrew emerging markets by 2 percentage points, showing 5.6% and 3.6% year-over-year growth, respectively.

·  HP remained the number 1 hardcopy peripheral vendor with 39.6% market share in terms of worldwide shipments (10.5 million units). HP's unit shipments declined 12.7% year over year. HP performed better in the emerging markets with -9.2% year-over-year growth compared to -16.6% in mature markets. Despite a decline of 4.1%, the vendor's wireless segment managed to gain 4 points from a year ago to 44% share.

·  Canon continued as the number 2 ranked vendor in 2Q12 with worldwide market share of 21.4% and 0.5% year-over-year growth. Unlike HP, Canon grew its shipments 2.9% year over year in mature regions while showing a decline of 1.2% in emerging markets. Wireless devices made up 31% of the vendor's shipments in 2Q12, up 9 points from a year ago.

·  Epson maintained its position as the number 3 vendor worldwide with 13.2% share, up 1 point from a year ago. The vendor's shipments declined 1.3% year-over-year in 2Q12. Similar to Canon, Epson enjoyed a better year-over-year trend in mature markets than emerging regions, 9.8% versus -8.9%, respectively. The wireless segment represents 39% of Epson's unit shipments.

·  Brother climbed one spot up to become the top 4 ranked vendor in the total hardcopy market. The vendor posted 6.5% year-over-year growth, the best year-over-year trend among the top 5, and resulting in more than 1.7 million units shipped. The vendor benefited from double-digit year-over-year growth (20.3%) in emerging markets while experiencing a small decline of 2.8% in mature regions. Brother continues to enjoy growth in the wireless segment, posting a 22.3% year-over-year gain to 37% share.

·  Samsung ranked 5th in the overall hardcopy market. The vendor suffered a decline of 22.0% year over year in total shipments and dropped one spot in the latest worldwide ranking. The vendor saw a double-digit decline in both emerging and mature markets as its old models have been effectively phased out and its new products will not be introduced until the third quarter of 2012.

"IDC expects the opportunity for wireless will continue to expand over the next three years," said Phuong Hang, program manager, Worldwide Hardcopy Peripheral Trackers. "We also expect SMBs, small offices, and microbusinesses to be early adopters of built-in wireless laser printers and MFPs, while these devices in a large enterprise will continue to rely on existing WANs for wireless capability."

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