New Delhi, 15th December, 2015:  Uniquely in the Asia-Pacific market ( excluding Japan), the Hard Copy Peripherals ( printers and copiers) market in India has grown by 11.1% sequentially in Q3 2015 and reached 984,337 units in terms of shipments.  This is mainly due to reasons: growing government purchase  and the enthusiasm for  adoption of refillable Ink Tank printers  that have been offered this year. 
These are core finding's of  the International Data Corporation (IDC)    Quarterly  tracker.
HP remained the market leader with 43.2% shipment share in Q3 2015, followed by Canon and Epson with 18.8% and 18.1% share respectively.  HP and Canon are well known brands in the Printer industry and have a strong channel base which is helping them to lead the market. Epson at the third position is catching up fast because of their recently launched third generation InkTank printers Ricoh is at the fourth position owing to the growth from their increased online sales. They have an exclusive tie up with Snapdeal for some of their printers which has helped them to grow immensely in this quarter.

The Inkjet market was very strong because of the growing demand for InkTank printers which offers a very low cost per page. Currently, the demand for these printers is high in the SOHO and SMB segment. Further the festive season in Q3 2015 has also contributed to the strong growth of Inkjet market. On the other hand, Laser market has also grown because of the increased demand from Government segment
Says IDC Market Analyst Riyaz Ahmed:   “Reducing the cost of printing has increased the adoption and usage of printers. Till now SOHO and SMB segments were extensively adopting/using these InkTank printers, but in future Home Users are expected to be another major segment for this.”
__________________________________________________________
IndiaTechOnline comment: Epson was the pioneer in ink tank printers. 
They were followed in 2015 by Brother and most recently, Canon -- 
interestingly all three are Japan-based entities.  HP the market leader across
the so called  Hard Copy Peripherals  is yet to make the switch to ink tanks.
Meanwhile Epson has taken the next step -- replaceable  ink pouches  which
make refill unnecessary for a year or more.
______________________________________________________________
In the Laser segment, Laser HCP* (Printer-based) market has grown by 6.8% in terms of unit shipments in Q3 2015 when compared to total shipments in Q2 2015. Increased sales in the Government segment was one of the major factor for this along with  a stable channel business. In Laser HCP* (Printer-based), HP continued to be the market leader with a share of 50.4% followed by Canon and Ricoh at the second and third position.
In the Laser HCP* (Copier-based), a very high sequential growth of 43.6% was seen in Q3 2015. This was primarily due to strong Government buying and Ricoh is the market leader and has posted a strong sequential growth of 111.7% in Q3 2015. Canon slipped to the second position facing competition from Ricoh in the Government business.