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According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, the HCP market in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan and China (APeJC) recorded 3.5 million units in the last quarter of 2020, a 5.5% growth from 3.3 million units a year ago. This marked the first quarter that registers a year-over-year growth for the region in 2020. On the other hand, overall shipment levels declined by 13.9% for the full calendar year of 2020.
| APeJC Shipment by Product, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q4 2020 | |||||
| Product | 2020Q4 Shipment Volume | 2020Q4 Market Share | 2019Q4 Shipment Volume | 2019Q4 Market Share | Year-Over-Year Change |
| Inkjet | 2,332,600 | 66.6% | 2,137,788 | 64.4% | 9.1% |
| Laser | 1,117,678 | 31.9% | 1,095,352 | 33.0% | 2.0% |
| SDM | 52,821 | 1.5% | 88,298 | 2.7% | -40.2% |
| Line Printer | 223 | 0.0% | 292 | 0.0% | -23.6% |
| Total | 3,503,322 | 100.0% | 3,321,730 | 100.0% | 5.5% |
| Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, March 30, 2021 | |||||
| APeJC Shipment by Product, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, the Calendar Year 2020 | |||||
| Product | 2020 Shipment Volume | 2020 Market Share | 2019 Shipment Volume | 2019 Market Share | Year-Over-Year Change |
| Inkjet | 7,712,579 | 63.7% | 8,962,504 | 63.8% | -13.9% |
| Laser | 4,134,541 | 34.2% | 4,690,907 | 33.4% | -11.9% |
| SDM | 250,806 | 2.1% | 395,121 | 2.8% | -36.5% |
| Line Printer | 1,020 | 0.0% | 1,142 | 0.0% | -10.7% |
| Total | 12,098,946 | 100.0% | 14,049,674 | 100.0% | -13.9% |
| Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, March 30, 2021 | |||||
“The main factor driving the recovery of the HCP market is from the surge of Consumer demand starting in Q2 of the year and leading into Q4. The unexpected change in the work environment and educational environment due to the pandemic drove a surge of demand from home users to invest in printers to accommodate work and personal needs. Stimulus packages provided by certain countries specific to IT products, and certain companies providing reimbursement for the purchases also contributed to the surge,” says Han Jie Poh, Senior Research Manager for Imaging Print Document Solutions research at IDC Asia/Pacific.
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The demand was overwhelming for inkjet machines, causing various out-of-stock situations to arise across vendors, which also contributed to the demand trickling into laser printers as well – with popular models being the entry-level models within 1-20 ppm speed range. Vendors were facing pressure to ensure sufficient stocks were being shipped out but unfortunately were met with various logistic issues as well as production issues which improved over time towards quarter four of the year.
There will be other factors impacting the HCP market positively in 2021 and beyond, such as the overall improvement of the logistic and manufacturing constraints which are expected to be fully resolved by the middle of the year. Schools and businesses will start to return back to normalcy as countries within the region have already started on the vaccination program in phases.
However, we do not expect the shipment levels to return to pre-pandemic levels as digitization has accelerated in 2020 itself, and more digitization efforts will continue across countries. This will likely drive down the printing volume as business processes start to be more digital and there will be a lesser need for printed hard copies.
