Sharp attains highest printer sales growth

April 12, 2019

New data from IDC shows that the OEM has come out on top by achieving the highest growth rate in printer sales, selling 16 percent more MFPs in 2018 compared to the year before.

According to Channel Pro, Sharp saw a rise not only in shipments, but also a value growth of 9 percent, placing it within the top four OEMs in that specific criteria in IDC’s Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, Q4 2018 study.

Peter Plested, Sharp Europe’s Director of Information Systems, said: “Sharp continues to grow thanks to our focus on designing smart, secure devices with easy-to-use intelligent features, that let people save time on the tasks they perform the most.”

Plested added that in 2018, Sharp both refreshed its range of A3 models, and launched a slate of new A4 devices “with the same operation across the whole line.”

“We see the sales results as further endorsement of this refresh,” Plested said.

Although Sharp performed well, it was a less positive showing for the rest of the printer market, with the sector declining 4.8 percent year-on-year, to around 26.7 million units in Q4 2018. Channel Pro reports that “it was actually HP that stopped the results slipping further into the red,” the OEM posting a 3.6 percent increase in shipments in Q4 and a 1.9 percent increase in shipments over the entire year.

Aside from Sharp and HP, all other leading OEMs posted a “significant decline”, with Epson worst affected, shipments falling 15.2 percent in Q4 compared to the equivalent period in 2017.

The majority of growth in the sector took place in APeJ (Asia Pacific excluding Japan) and US markets, as opposed to European ones.