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HCP shipments to Saudi Arabia increased 20.8% year-on-year in Q2 2009 to total 201,124 units, with inkjet technology primarily responsible for driving this growth as shipments of laser and serial dot matrix (SDM) devices both declined.
"HP's push of its inkjet machines in Q2 2009 single handedly enabled the market to expand, as the shipments of all other vendors competing in this segment contracted,"
says Mohammed AlNoueiri, Senior Research Analyst with IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey's Imaging and Hardcopy Devices Group.
"This market growth was certainly unexpected, with the impact of the financial crisis continuing to severely impact the buoyancy of the Gulf region's economies. That said, the purchasing power of home users remains strong across the kingdom, helping to drive the market forward against all odds," he added.
Multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) comfortably outperformed single-function devices in Q2 2009, with the volume of MFP shipments growing 17.1% year-on-year to reach 122,014 units. The single-function printer segment, meanwhile, generated sales of 77,964 units.
"End users in Saudi Arabia are now well aware of the advantages of MFP devices over single-function machines," says AlNoueiri. "Not only can they benefit from the all-in-one functionality that MFPs offer, they can also save space and increase productivity."
The market's color and mono laser segments suffered double-digit year-on-year declines in volume in Q2 2009.
"The Saudi market was not completely insulated from the global economic downturn, as demand for business solutions - mainly copiers - slowed considerably when compared to previous quarters," says AlNoueiri. "Channel partners are seeing the launch of tenders but few are actually being awarded and executed. Government institutions and large organizations are delaying any major investments in peripherals as they wait for the economic situation to settle down."
Posted by Rana Mesbah
