Indian home printer market increases

Indian technology website Computer Reseller Network has commented on the growth of the Indian home printer market, interviewing analysts and OEM representatives on the market’s upward trends.

The article, Increased Printer Sales to Home Segment, states that 10 to 15 percent increase in demand for photo printers has been seen recently, since Facebook and other social media websites have become widely used.

Recent growth in laser printer purchases have not been particularly noted by OEMs in India, but they admit that home users are changing their usage of printers at home and therefore are moving towards laser as opposed to inkjet.

SM Ramprasad, Business Manager, Consumer Product Group for Epson India, told CRN: “In our internal survey we saw a rise in the photo printing segment to the tune of 10-15 percent after social media gained popularity in the last 1-2 years.

“We have found that photographs of family and friends that are posted online are printed and framed to be kept at home or in the office. Also, despite the popularity of filling forms online, consumers keep a backup in the form of a hard copy at home.”

Chirag Talwar, Partner at sub-distributor Creative Computers, added: “The reason why lasers are getting popular in the home segment is that they come with large toner capacity, thus reducing the cost per page.”

Sandeep Samaiya, Partner at reseller Info Solutions, agreed, stating: “We have observed a unit-wise increase of 20-25 percent in laser printers for the home and SOHO segment; the value-wise increment has been around 20-30 percent.”

MFPs are also said to be witnessing a 70 percent rise in demand, with a recent Gartner report noting that the combined sales of copiers, MFPs and serial inkjet and page printers was around 6,810,142 units in 2010’s fourth quarter, which was a 10 percent increase over the previous year.

This contrasts with the recent news from Gartner that the Indian printer market overall had declined in the first quarter of this year.

source