Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, March 7, 2013 – Following what was forecasted, the printer and multifunction peripherals (MFP) market in Vietnam continued to grow in 2012 Q4, gaining 32.2% growth compared with the previous quarter. The growth mainly came from the strength of laser technology shipments, which increased by 45% quarter-on-quarter. Total laser accounted for 77% of the total market in Vietnam, while inkjet products reached 23% and grew only by 2% compared to 2012 Q3. Driving factors in this quarter included the increased purchasing power from various government administrative units, banking sector and the procurement of equipment of various industries during the year-end.

Figure 1

Laser printer market in the fourth quarter was generally very positive. Shipments of MFPs increased by 54% quarterly while the printer shipments grew by 43% QoQ. Dramatic price reduction was the main reason that led to the strong growth of MFPs. Some of models got the breakthrough price of about US$150/unit, creating greater competition pressure on printer models, which have been dominant in the market. Most vendors have been running attractive promotions in order to attract potential users and also have strong supports towards channels. Meanwhile, printers continued to be chosen by the government sector due to its easy-to-use and easy-to-be-replaced ability. In addition, some peripherals vendors who have not previously been involved in printer market is now getting involved with a series of new printer models. This push the market to compete much more excitingly.

“Inkjet usage is still largely sold to the home users, while the number of printers going to businesses is still limited due to various factors such as users’ familiarity with laser technology and the psychology of requiring the cheapest usage cost possibly and any-type-of-quality prints is acceptable in normal usage.”, says Tu Dang, Market Analyst for Imaging, Printing and Document Solutions (IPDS), IDC Vietnam. However, inkjets are seen to be aggressively pushed by vendors in Vietnam, on the back of significant functional improvements such as advanced consumables printing, lower usage cost and enhanced go-with-features which are eprint, printing in cloud, printing with wifi, printing security.

While the second half of 2012 proved to be fruitful in terms of shipment increase, this was not enough to shore up the total shipment for 2012, which dropped by 7.8% compared with the total shipments in 2011. The sharp decline in the first 6 months of 2012 caused the overall decline, as the country faced economic setbacks that effected spending on printing needs.

Figure 2

Although 2013 was foreseen not to be so positive in economic situation, demand for office equipment is still be evaluated as having much potential. 2013 and 2014 are considered an important pad-step for businesses to keep investing both in human resource and facilities which help them develop sustainably to the most competitive position in the market as 2015 will be the year in which Vietnam has to follow WTO regulations to reduce import tax barrier of most of imported goods down to 0-5%. IDC predicts in 2013 that the printer and MFP market in Vietnam will grow by 14.9%, in which laser will increase by 17.7%, and inkjet will increase by 7% due to long-term promotional activities from various vendors. With supported policies of Gov towards SMEs, “However, as the competition will even get more intense, vendors are under pressure to adjust their strategies appropriately to keep their customers, seeking potential customers in order to sustain their growth expectations in this difficult year.”, Tu adds.

For more information about purchasing this research data, please contact Lam Nguyen at +848-3521-8009 or lnguyen@idc.com. To set up an interview with Tu Dang, please contact Agita Saraswati at +6221 520 3496 or asaraswati@idc.com

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