According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the Hard Copy Peripherals (HCP) market in India registered a recovery in Q1 2012 and stood at 834,134 units, recording a sequential growth (Quarterly) of 12.6% and a year on year growth of 7.4%.

"Consumer sentiment improved in Q1 even as the Government and SME remained key contributors to growth," said Dr. Adwaita Menon, Associate Director at IDC. HP continued to dominate the HCP market with a market share of 48.8%. The vendor was noted to recover from the share drop, noted in Q4 and gained 3.0 percentage points in Q1 2012.

“Successful marketing campaign by HP to strengthen their printer business has paid off well in Q1.Similarly efforts by Canon to create a robust channel ecosystem and to continue their focus on fast selling models helped them in their sizeable growth, as noted in Q1 2012”, commented Mohit Raizada, Market Analyst at IDC.

Inkjet HCP market grew by 19.9% compared to Q4 2011 and marginally by 1.5% compared to the same period in 2011. Mohit further adds, "Due to price inflation and impending macro economic pressures, consumer sentiments remained subdued towards the second half of 2011, which rebounded to some extent in Q1 2012”. HP leads the Inkjet HCP market in Q1 2012 with a whopping 64.3% share followed by Epson and Canon respectively.

Laser HCP (Printer-based) market witnessed a growth of 11.6% compared to previous quarter Q4 2011 and a growth of 18.9% compared to the same period in 2011. Here too, HP regained its dominance followed by Canon and Samsung, respectively.

Moving to the last segment, Laser HCP (Copier-based) marked record shipments of 33,406 units in Q1 2012. This market witnessed a sequential growth of 60.5% and a year-on-year growth of 15.4%. Ricoh gained maximum share of 8.1 percentage points and stood as the market leader with 27.6% market share. This was followed by Canon with 21.6% share. 

“Q1 continues to remain strong for Laser HCP spending in Government and Education sector owing to the year-end closure for federal bodies and respective allocation for spending in IT products. This supports the Laser market as the spending from these segments increases in Q1 every year," says Nitin Kumar Singh, Sr. Market Analyst at IDC.

Mohit commented “New models in both Inkjet and Laser categories are expected to be launched in the upcoming quarters. Vendors have been expanding their retail presence in the recent past across the entry level Laser printers, anticipating a migration across consumers from inkjet to laser in the near future. Further, education segment is expected to remain buoyant owing to seasonality and back-to-school campaigns, which are being driven by vendors in both PC and HCP market”. However, IDC expects the volatile currency to adversely impact HCP market even as a price hike across brands remains imminent.