Asia-Pacific demand for printers slows

Asia-Pacific demand for printers slows

SINGAPORE (AFP): Demand for computer printers in the Asia- Pacific region is to expand at a slower pace of 14 percent this year after posting an explosive growth rate in 1996, global market research company Dataquest said yesterday.

The regional market grew by 32 percent last year to 4.9 million printers worth just over US$2.9 billion, it said. For 1997, U.S.-based Dataquest expects demand to approach 5.6 million units.

"Massive buying in the past two years should slow down the sales growth for this year," Yue Yean Feng, Singapore-based industry analyst for the Dataquest Asia-Pacific printer program, told AFP.

She said printer demand in the region, of which 10 economies were covered by the Dataquest survey, would remain robust in line with increasing demand for personal computers.

Dataquest said in a statement South Korea, China, Australia and Taiwan accounted for the four largest markets in Asia- Pacific, taking 66 percent of the region's shipped volume of printers last year.

Six other economies accounted for the remaining 34 percent share, comprising -- in order of market size -- Malaysia, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

"The emerging economies of Asia will continue to drive growth in the regional printer market, particularly countries like India, China and Indonesia where PC (personal computer) penetration rates are low but growing very rapidly," Yue said.

In 1996, the statement said slightly less than two printers were shipped for every three PCs in the Asia-Pacific region. Among the leading regional printer vendors in 1996, U.S. firm Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) regained its number one position on the basis of total shipments.

HP led by a wider margin over number two Seiko Epson Corp. of Japan than Epson enjoyed over HP in 1995, Dataquest said. Canon of Japan remained in the number three position in 1996 but improved by a healthy margin on its 1995 total market share.

"It is clear that the trend toward feature-rich branded PCs in Asia in 1996 coincided with a regional printer market increasingly driven and populated by ever-cheaper color ink jets," Dataquest said.

In 1996, for the first time, ink jet models comprised a majority of the Asia-Pacific printer market volume and Dataquest said the success of color ink jets had already begun to erode the position of low-end monochrome laser models in the region.

It said one of the factors that would negatively impact the rate of growth in the overall printer market in the Asia-Pacific was the declining rate of new hardware, particularly PC, purchases in the most mature markets, South Korea and Australia.