Latin American Printer Shipments Declined in 2002 Mar 10, 2003

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Impacted by lower sales in the PC market and severe economic conditions in some countries, Latin America printer shipments totaled 5.2 million units in 2002, a 15.3 percent decline
from 2001, according to Dataquest Inc, a unit of Gartner, Inc. PC shipments in Latin America declined 6 percent in 2002, and this had a direct influence on the printer industry. Printer vendors need to drive sales by continuing to promote all-in-one (AIO) products, which have become more popular in the region and are subtracting market share from inkjet devices.

"All-in-one inkjet printers are showing much stronger growth rates than the printer-only inkjet products. During the fourth quarter of 2002, single-function inkjet printers declined 20.6 percent, while inkjet AIO products grew 287 percent," said Federico De Silva Leon, industry analyst covering printers for Gartner Dataquest's Computing Platforms Latin America group. "With increased product offerings and competitive pricing, consumers and businesses perceive these devices as good-valued products."

Lexmark was the only top-tier vendor to experience an increase in printer shipments in Latin America in 2002. Hewlett-Packard remained the top vendor in the region, despite a 17.5-percent decline in shipments.

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