IDC Tracker Reveals Significant Increase in LFP Sales

The International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)) worldwide quarterly large format printer (LFP) tracker revealed that the global LFP market has shown a 6.2 percent year-in-year increase. The LFP market includes single-function printers, as well as multifunctional printer systems (MFPs).

IDC Tracker specializes in delivering accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for various sectors of the global technology market. IDC leverages proprietary tools and research processes and delivers tracker results in the form of excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker products on their iPhones and iPads.

Phuong Hang, program director, worldwide large format printer tracker said, “Epson was one of the main growth engines in the APeJ market. The password encryption on Epson print heads benefited Epson itself, as well as Roland, Mimaki and Mutoh who OEM from Epson.”

The huge demand for the printers came from the two large geographic markets, the United States and Asia/Pacific, excluding Japan (APeJ). The region-wise statistics shows that the U.S. had year-over-year growth of 16.5 percent with respect to units and 8.4 percent in shipment value. The APeJ region gained 20.9 percent in units and 8.4 percent in shipment value.

The technical application segment grew 5.7 percent and accounted for 59.1 percent share of the total large format printer market in the third quarter and did not show much change from 2012. Most regional markets showed unit growth especially the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region followed by the U.S. and Japan.

As for the graphics application segment, it grew with the two large regional markets being APeJ and the U.S. While Japan and MEA were the other two regions that expanded year over year.

Considering the vendors the IDC Tracker found that HP continued as the number one in four regional markets, including APeJ and the U.S. Epson was second now and its performance was driven by double-digit year-over-year growth in the U.S., APeJ, Japan and MEA.

Canon (News - Alert) went down to third position experiencing a year-over-year increase in all regions except for Western Europe. The top regions were Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), APeJ and Canada. Roland was at number four showing growth in MEA, APeJ and Latin America. Ricoh (News - Alert) stood at number five with market expansion witnessed in Japan, the U.S. and APeJ.

According to a recent report by IDC the shipments of smart connected devices or SCDs has increased significantly. The number of SCD shipments worldwide crossed the one billion mark in 2012. The value of these SCDs was estimated to be $576.9 billion and these numbers are only expected to grow in the coming years.