Mumbai: The Indian Hard Copy Peripherals (HCP) market comprising printers and copiers grew two per cent to about 3.2 million units in 2012 over the previous year, driven by growth in laser multi-function printers (MFPs) shipments, research firm IDC said.

The HCP market in India was primarily driven by laser MFPs, which posted a remarkable year-on-year growth of 35.3 per cent in 2012, IDC said in a statement.

Inkjet (primarily A3 and A4 formats) segment, which is a consumer-driven market, recorded a year-on-year dip of 4.5 per cent last year.

"Despite end-user promotions and heavy marketing campaigns by all the leading vendors, inkjet market was not able to sustain the interest levels with the end users, who prefer to spend their budgets on other consumer products such as Smartphones and tablets," IDC Senior Market Analyst Mohit Raizada said.

Peripheral products such as printers remain a secondary product for Indian consumers, he added.

The overall laser market, a commercial segment driven space, recorded 13.7 per cent growth in 2012.

"With both Government and enterprises preferring MFPs, a clear shift towards laser MFP was witnessed as the share of laser MFPs increased to 24.6 per cent of the overall HCP market in India," Raizada said.

HP had 47.7 per cent share of the HCP market, followed by Canon (18.9 per cent), Epson (11.2 per cent) and Samsung (6.7 per cent). In the laser space, HP remained the market leader with 47.9 per cent share followed by Canon (21.8 percent).

"Apart from the top three vendors (HP, Canon and Samsung), the share of rest of the vendors increased to 17.8 per cent in 2012, especially with the growth of upcoming vendors like Panasonic and Ricoh," said Nitin Kumar Singh, another IDC analyst.

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