Brother, Samsung and HP have all come out as top laser multifunction devices in Oz as the market grew 9 per cent last year.

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And brands are battling it out for market share amongst small to medium business as intense discounting and product launches are on the way in 2011, IDC predicts.

However, the results which covered the last three months of 2010 were weaker than expected, due to dropping business confidence, according to IDC’s Australia Quarterly MFD Tracker.

However, these results were weaker than expected.

Brands wise, Brother came out top of the pile with 32 per cent share, followed closely by Samsung (25%), HP (22%). 

 “In the second half of 2010, channels were flooded with stock as heavy pricing rebates were given during Q3 in an attempt to increase sales amongst vendors.

Channels had excessive inventory in Q3 and softened business confidence during Q4, causing slow down in re stocking , said Cheryl Looi, hardcopy peripherals analyst for IDC Australia.

“Not only printer-based and copier-based market leaders, such as Brother and Fuji Xerox expanded their portfolio to target the SMB segment, smaller players such as Oki and Dell did the same.”

“Aggressive price competition and more product refreshes will be expected in coming quarters, as copier vendors attempt to increase market presence in the growing SMB segment, ultimately benefiting end users.”

“SMB users should take note of the increasing options in the market to gain better value and obtain products that could better suit the different needs of their organisation,” added Looi.

Brother    32%
Samsung    25%
HP    22%
Fuji Xerox    6%
Lexmark    6%
Canon    3%
Others    6%