(iTers News) – According to market research frim International Data Corporation (IDC) , the market for the large format printer showed a year-over-year decline of  4.2%, with nearly 73,000 units shipped in the second quarter of 2013. Shipment value also experienced a year-over-year decline of 3.2% to US$781 million. However, for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2010, two of the four largest large format printer (LFP) markets posted year-over-year growth in this period. The U.S. and Japan posted 5.0% and 4.2% growth in unit shipments in 2Q13.

"While the worldwide LFP market is mature, we do see pockets of growth opportunity that can be very lucrative in the eco-solvent based printers segment. We expect vendors to introduce new products soon to target these emerging markets," said Phuong Hang, Program Manager, Worldwide Large Format Printer Tracker.

Technology Highlights

The technical segment of the large format market is a driver of growth opportunity. This segment grew 2.4% year over year to more than 43,700 units shipped in 2Q13. It remains the largest application segment with more than 60% share of the total worldwide LFP market. This share is up 4 points from this time last year. In particular, the Americas region showed year-over-year unit growth of 17.8% in this large format category for 2Q13.

Conversely, the graphics application segment declined at -12% year over year to just under 29,000 units shipped. One bright spot occurred in the Japan market where these printers showed historically high 28% year-over-year growth.

Vendor Highlights

HP remains the global LFP market leader with 39.4% share, even with a two percentage point share drop from a year earlier. HP continues to lead the technical market, with more than twice the unit shipments of its next competitor, Canon. HP also altogether held a second place  in the graphics market behind Epson.

Canon jumped one spot up from last quarter to become the No. 2 vendor with 18.9% share, up 5 percentge points from a year ago. The vendor grew 15.5%, the best year-over-year performance among the top 5, to 13,756 units shipped. This positive growth was driven by substantial 23.6% year-over-year gain in the technical market.

Epson comes into the third place, down one place, from last quarter. The vendor suffered a 14.4% year over year drop in terms of unit shipments and represents 18.6% share in the worldwide LFP market. Despite showing significant year-over-year growth (102.6%) in the technical application segment, Epson experienced a decline of  24.1% in the graphics segment, which resulted in 13,501 units shipped in the second quarter of 2013.

Roland surpassed Oce to rank the the fourth  player  tin the worldwide LFP market in terms of units shipped. The vendor showed  a 12.0% year-over-year growth in unit shipments and accounts for 3.8% share. 

Oce rounded out the top 5 after losing out to Roland by less than 0.5%. The vendor experienced year-over-year growth of 5.1% and captured 3.6% share of the global LFP market. Oce's 17.8% year-over-year growth in the technical application segment was offset by a decline of 19.1% in the graphics segment. The vendor holds third place in the technical market.

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker, August 2013

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Large Format Printer Tracker, August 2013

(Credit : IDC)