MORE than half the printers shipped last year came from the Asia-Pacific region, according to figures released last week by regional subsidiary of International Data Corp (IDC).
According to the IDC statistics, total printer shipments last year reached 5.8 million units worth US$4.6 million in end-user revenues. The Asia-Pacific market, excluding Japan, shipped 3.6 million units valued at US$2.8 billion.
Although laser printers captured 42 per cent of the end-user revenue in the market, inkjet technology played a dominant role with 40 per cent of total unit shipments in the Asia-Pacific market.
Japan was the most advanced printer market in the region, claiming 37 per cent of the total units shipped and 40 per cent of total revenue. Japanese end-users were also very receptive to new technology such as thermal printers - which includes dye sublimation, fusion and wax transfer technology.
The growth in popularity of inkjet technology in the small office and home office market was directly related to slashed prices by vendors, IDC said.
Inkjet technology had seriously cut into the serial dot matrix printer installed base, it added.
