Printer Shipments up Nine Percent in Western Europe, Reports Context

London-based IT market-research firm Context reports that unit shipments of printer hardware continued to register growth of 9 percent year-over-year across EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) in the first quarter of 2014.

According to Context’s data, Western Europe printer-unit shipments also grew by 10 percent year-over-year, with the United Kingdom and Spain Printer Hardware shipments increasing by 31 percent and 28 percent respectively. Laser and inkjet MFPs contributed to the U.K. growth; meanwhile, Spain saw positive double-digit growth in all categories.

The strongest Printer Hardware shipments were seen in the Middle East and Africa, with a growth of 20 percent, boosted by double-digit laser and inkjet MFP shipments in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey also saw a printer-hardware increase of 8 percent in first-quarter 2014. In contrast, unit shipments to Central and Eastern Europe decreased by 4 percent year-over-year in the first-quarter, as Russia, the largest market in the region, registered a 1 percent year-on-year decline for the period.

“The majority of Western European countries registered positive year-on-year unit shipments growth in first-quarter 2014, driven mostly by multifunction laser and inkjet technology printers,” commented Zivile Brazdziunaite, Imaging Market Analyst at Context.

Printer-market share year-over-year increases in first-quarter 2014 in Western Europe are as follows:

Austria: 37 percent
Belgium: 10 percent
Denmark: 11 percent
Finland : 9 percent
France: 1 percent
Germany: -1 percent
Greece: – 8 percent
Ireland: – 51 percent
Italy: 13 percent
Netherlands: 7 percent
Norway: 12 percent
Portugal: – 6 percent
Spain: 28 percent
Sweden: 1 percent
Switzerland: 3 percent
United Kingdom 31 percent

About Context

Headquartered in London with over 150 staff in 15 countries, Context specializes in tracking technology sales and pricing across the globe. Supported by the largest Distribution Channel Sales Database in the world, the firm tracks channel sales in most countries across EMEA, where it is official data partners with all members of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC).

Context reports and services enable customers to assess their business operations in the light of actual sell out figures, and make business critical decisions based on hard data. For more information, visit Context at www.contextworld.com.