Weaker macroeconomic outlook and impact on hard disk drive supply chain led to just 0.4 per cent growth in overall A4 printer sales in India during January-March 2012.
The overall A4 printer sales in India’s top 65 cities crossed 5.53 lakh units during the quarter, up 0.4 per cent compared with 5.5 lakh units during October-December 2011, independent market intelligence firm Cybermedia Research said on Friday.
Floods in Thailand during the end of last year were one of the major reasons that led to inadequate supply of hard disk drives for printers. The country is the biggest supplier of information technology hardware worldwide.
Going forward, impact of the rupee gain against the dollar may also act as a dampener to printer sales in India.
Weak rupee
"A weaker rupee is exerting pressure on vendors to increase printer prices ahead of the coming festive season. This may not act as the perfect incentive to lift the sombre mood of the market,’’ Mr Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead Analyst, CyberMedia Research InfoTech Practice, said.
He said while the modest demand from the domestic small and medium business enterprise base triggered a growth in the laser multi function printer category, lack of a strong consumer demand hit inkjet printer growth in the first quarter 2012.
Laser printer sales
Laser printer sales in top 65 cities grew four per cent to 2.8 lakh units during the quarter over the fourth quarter 2011 of 2.7 lakh units.
However, inkjet printer sales fell five per cent sequentially from 2.4 lakh units during October-December 2011 to 2.3 lakh units in January-March 2012.