As we move into the future the focus of the inkjet market will shift from the lowest price being the selling feature to becoming more feature driven. The future will also bring the division of consumers into the business users and the photography users.
Market leaders, HP and Lexmark, both
lost market share of six per cent and 11 per cent respectively but still managed to hold 88 per cent of the market between the two. Epson and Canon gained considerably resulting in approximately 2.5 per cent market share for each.
The colour laser market has started to exhibit signs of its long awaited growth, expanding by 33 per cent. HP dominates this market with 65 per cent market share.
Handhelds
Palm continues to dominate the operating system market accounting for 81 per cent of total shipments.
With an estimated 52,688 units shipped, top vendors continued to be Palm and Sony while the Palm OS segment experienced a 27 per cent decline in shipment.
Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system experienced an overhaul in the second quarter of 2003 and was recoined the Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PC.
The second quarter of 2003 brought with it the introduction of the Communicator Device segment to the Canadian Market.
Research In Motion Limited (RIM) continued to be the sole vendor in the wireless e-mail segment. (Handheld Snapshot)
Scanners
The flatbed scanner market experienced a sequential decline of eight per cent and an annual decline of 35 per cent, which was caused by significant market penetration. Hewlett-Packard and Canon continued to dominate the market, accounting for a combined unit market share of 63 per cent.
The price point with the greatest popularity was the $100 – $199 category, which accounted for 36 per cent of total second quarter shipments.
An estimated 82 per cent of the second quarter flatbed scanner shipments were 48-bit colour machines.
Optical Storage
The optical drive market experienced sequential decline of 32 per cent and an annual decline of three per cent.
DVD-ROM drives also had a lackluster quarter, as they are bypassed in favour of CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drives.
Optical writers had a good Q2, as CD-RW shipments were up three per cent quarter over quarter, while DVD writers grew by almost seven times compared to Q1-02.
LG continues to dominate the Canadian optical drive market, with commanding market share leadership in all optical drive segments.
DVD writers are moving into the early adopter phase, evidenced by a volume increase of 56 per cent.
Printer Supplies
Printer Supply Sales were up by 13 per cent compared with total revenues of $989 million in 2001.
The market for ink will slow considerably in coming years as we are beginning to see an overall decline in the demand for these products.
Toner revenues were up by 12 per cent in 2002 and although growth will slow somewhat through 2006, the market will be stronger than for ink cartridges in terms of annual growth since the colour toner market will continue to expand through 2006.
Overall, from an ink standpoint, the third parties continue to aggressively target Canon and Epson and continue to do well here at the expense of the printer vendors. On the toner side, HP is still the prime target, but Lexmark is also facing the heat as well.
Evans Research Corp. (ERC) based in Toronto, is a privately owned Canadian company. Since its inception in 1971, ERC has provided authoritative market research and information services.
