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HP leads U.S. Market, According to IDC's Printer Tracker Report

September 2, 2002

Hewlett-Packard has increased its total market share to slightly less than 50 percent for second quarter 2002, up from first quarter's 46 percent, according to IDC's U.S. Printer Tracker Report.

HP also increased in the monochrome laser segment, with 77 percent of the market share, up from 69 percent. That increase came at the expense of Lexmark, which dropped 41 percent in the black and white laser category.

HP also led in color inkjets, with 46 percent, an increase of 3 percent.

Xerox grabbed the top spot for color page printers, with 29 percent of the market share, which is a 25 percent unit shipment growth from second quarter 2001.

Following HP in total printer market share were Lexmark with 18 percent, Epson with 17 percent and Canon with 10 percent.

HP credits the increase to its broad offering of inkjet and laser printers, including color, black-and-white and multifunction printers, which have enabled the company to increase market share.

"Our strides in market share leadership are due to customer responsiveness and unmatched reliability -- key elements to providing our customers with what they want and need," said Lee Ray Massey, senior vice president, Americas, HP Imaging and Printing Group. "HP's continued growth and leadership in the printing industry will be fueled by these ongoing priorities as well as upcoming innovations, such as transformational plays in digital imaging, digital publishing and commercial services -- solid strategies that are not easily overcome by other companies."

HP's large share of the black and white laser printer market was critical to the company's overall market leadership. HP leads in the 14 pages per minute (ppm), 14-20 ppm, 21-30 ppm, 31-44 ppm and 45-69 ppm categories of the black and white laser printer market.

HP's gains in the color inkjet market are due to contributions from its all-in-one inkjet printers, the company says.

"HP is clearly committed to extending and solidifying its leadership in the printer market, having recently invested $1 billion in its inkjet platform alone," said Angele Boyd, group vice president, IDC.

Xerox attributes its growth in the color page market to the recent introduction of several Phaser network color printers, which offer single pass color printing technologies, enabling a printer to deposit all colors on paper in one pass, rather than the four passes required by traditional color laser printers. The speed, print quality and reliability of these printers are luring customers and taking market share from competitors, the company says.

"Xerox is committed to the color page printer market and innovates with its single pass and solid ink technologies," said IDC's Boyd.

"Network color printing is the highest growth area in the overall printer market, and we intend to continue our technology leadership in this segment," said Jim Miller, president, Xerox Office Printing Business. "The breadth and quality of Xerox network color printers is unmatched by any other vendor, and we are seeing the results in the marketplace."