Printer sales in Australia fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003 to 390,000 units, and are expected to fall another 13 percent for the full year 2004, IDC said.
Market research firm IDC has released fourth-quarter 2003 figures showing that total printer unit shipments fell 12 percent to 390,000, including inkjet single-function printers, inkjet multi-function printers, laser and serial dot matrix printers.
Although the fourth-quarter decline was attributable to seasonality - the summer period was generally the quietest in the year for that market as high-end and workgroup deals dropped off - the total market would shrink further this year, IDC said.
'IDC predicts the total printer market will decline by 13 percent to around 970,000 units over 2004,' it said.
In the fourth-quarter of 2003, the mono laser printer market reached 43,000 units, an 11 percent decline from the third quarter, while the colour laser printer market remained stable with around 7000 units in each quarter, IDC said.
Serial dot matrix printers were hanging on but still suffered a 19 percent drop to 2400 units for the fourth quarter, as other printer types proved more popular.
'The only market which saw growth during the fourth quarter of 2003 was inkjet multi-function printers, albeit only one percent ... to 140,000 units,' the company said.
Inkjet and laser multi-function printers were expected to remain more popular than their single-function counterparts, IDC said.
'Inkjet MFPs will become dominant in the inkjet market over 2004/05 with more than 50 percent share, while colour is expected to hit 15 percent share in the decreasing single function laser market,' IDC said.