Growth slowed down, and the US slowdown was the best-known culprit. Hidden away were far more causative factors—the aggressive pricing model adopted by most MNC vendors resulted in a bloodbath. While the top-end numbers looked healthy enough—with the peripherals market clocking revenues of Rs 2,517 crore overall, against Rs 2,070 crore in the previous year, a growth of around 22% (45% in 1999-00)—a segment-wise analysis revealed that it was only heavy buying by the SME and SOHO segments that were fueling growth... For much of the rest, it was time for cautious treading, and thoughtful planning.

Printers

An estimated 798,732 printers were sold during 2000-01, a growth of 17% in unit terms. However, in terms of value, the growth actually slipped from last year’s Rs 823 crore to Rs 767 crore.

Inkjets, at the cost of other printer categories, enjoyed a healthy growth of 52% in terms of value and 48% in terms of units. A total of 472,165 units were shipped during the fiscal, valued at Rs 326 crore. Hewlett-Packard, the market leader in the category, made a drastic gradual cut of about 30% in the price of its models, forcing other players like Epson and Canon to reduce their price points. HP dominated the market, commanding around 74% marketshare in unit terms, followed by Epson with 17%.

New entrants like Xerox and Sharp threw in some challenge. Compaq made a surprise entry, bundling its own brand of inkjet printers with its Presario and Deskpro range of PCs. It will be interesting to watch if these debuts will affect the so-far bipolar nature of competition—driven by HP and Epson. The home segment emerged as the biggest driver, accounting for nearly 40% of inkjet units shipped. The SMB and the SOHO segments made up for 30% and 25%, respectively, while others consumed the remaining 5%.

The impact printer market underwent a major vendor repositioning, as last year’s leader Wipro lost its dominance. In stark contrast to a total of 111,616 impact printers last year, valued at Rs 143 crore, Wipro shipped a mere 35,800 units this year at a total of around Rs 43 crore. The dismal performance by Wipro had a great deal of negative impact on the overall printer revenues, and consequently on the peripherals revenues as well. From a revenue of Rs 370 crore last year, the impact printer market witnessed a sharp skid to Rs 301 crore, and was thus forced to bear with a negative growth rate of 19% in value terms. With the overall printer market closely tied up with the PC industry, vendors are taking the bundling route like never before. For instance, Epson forged a tie-up with Zenith, Compaq, Vintron, Acer and HCL to bundle its offerings.