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CAP Ventures Reports 5.7% Growth in U.S. Printer Market

(Weymouth, MA) June 5, 2003... CAP Ventures' research indicates that overall printer and printer-based multifunction unit placements in the United States increased 5.7%, growing from 26.1 million in 2001 to 27.6 million in 2002. The printer-based multifunctinal peripherals (MFP) market was one of the most exciting segments for the printing industry during 2002. CAP Ventures estimates that MFP unit placements grew 40% year-over-year, from 3.6 million in 2001 to 5.2 million in 2002.

The results of this research are now available in a report entitled Preliminary Year 2002 U.S. Printer Market Placements. The report provides detailed data by segment and vendor market shares.

In general, personal printers declined as users moved to new lower-cost, higher functionality workgroup printers. Color page printer placements increased by over 22%, from 245,000 in 2001 to 301,200 in 2002, as lower-cost units began to open the market. Black & white page printer placements were up 32.1%, from 2.9 million in 2001 to over 3.8 million in 2002. This growth was due to the increase in perceived value of the new lower-cost, higher performance, and feature-rich workgroup printers. Color inkjet printer placements declined 7%, from 18.7 million units in 2001 to 17.4 million units in 2002, as users migrated to low-cost inkjet MFPs, which experienced an increase of 41%.

In addition to examining the market by traditional speed segmentations, CAP Ventures provides a view of the market based on user environments. The three environments are personal, workgroup, and production.

Personal
Single-function printer placements, which include monochrome page printers with speeds up to 12 ppm, color inkjet printers, and dot matrix printers, were down 7% in 2002 in comparison to 2001, after a 14.8% decline between 2000 and 2001. 2001 placements were approximately 19.9 million, compared with 19 million in 2002. Personal printer-based MFP placements, which include monochrome page printers that produce up to 12 ppm and color inkjet printers, were up 41% overall. Placements for 2001 were approximately 3.6 million, compared to 5 million in 2002.

Workgroup 
Single-function workgroup printer placements increased by 37%, from 2.5 million units in 2001 to 3.4 million units in 2002. Multifunction workgroup printer placements, which include monochrome page printers that produce 13 - 79 ppm and color page printers, were up 64%, growing from 71,900 in 2001 to 115,000 in 2002.

Production
Print-on-demand placements grew 4%, from 61,299 in 2001 to 63,883 in 2002. Black & white placements drove this segment growth with a 28% increase. While total color placements dropped by 6%, due to a significant decrease in the number of convenience color copiers, production color devices that print at speeds of 24 ppm or faster increased by more than 4%. This segment is expected to grow even more in 2003.

The complete report is available immediately to clients of CAP Ventures' North American Digital Peripherals Solutions Consulting Service. To learn more about the report or to make a purchase, please contact Alison Hipp at , ext. 126 or via e-mail at .

CAP Ventures' complete market forecast provides data through 2007 and will be available later this quarter. It will include placements, installed base, and hardware revenue.