After growing 16 per cent sequentially in the second quarter this year, IDC’s latest printer market tracker shows Q3 sales dropped off seasonally.

Describing the market as “quite healthy in Q3 2005”, IDC says there was only a marginal drop of 2 per cent over the previous quarter with a 4 per cent growth over the year ago quarter.

The market shares for both single-function and multi-function devices showed Epson was bumped out of its third placing as strong shipments in the single function inkjet printer market helped Lexmark move up.

Brother, meanwhile, continued to occupy the fifth position. No change was observed in the ranking of sixth-place Dell. On the other hand, Kyocera entered the Top-7 vendor tally this time, displacing Samsung.

However, the biggest news from the report is probably HP’s continued domination of a declining market. HP dropped 2 per cent market share, but was hit by a significant drop in average selling prices. The average selling price of a single-function colour laser printer was down by a significant 29 per cent in Q3 2005 compared to the same period a year ago, according to IDC. The corresponding drop for a multi-function colour laser printer was even steeper at 40 per cent.

Canon’s position was precarious also. It dropped 2 percentage points in the share rankings despite strong sales in its preferred market segment – single function inkjets.

“Laser printers, which registered better-than-expected performance at the end of the financial year in Q2 2005, fell by 16% sequentially in Q3, in the absence of large orders. However, the drop was notably smaller for colour lasers, compared to that for monochrome lasers. Increasing focus of vendors on colour lasers and declining prices will accelerate the growth of this segment”, said Rishi Ghai, IDC Peripherals Analyst.

“While consumer buying in Q3 2005 showed signs of moderate improvement over Q2, commercial buying witnessed a relative seasonal drop. The trend was also reflected in a small growth in shipments of inkjet printers and a drop in sales of laser printers”, he said.

IDC Top-7 Printer Vendors, Q3 2005: