South Africa’s best-selling printer brand

Konica Minolta, HP, and Canon are the best-selling printers in Southern Africa for the period from January to May and are neck-and-neck in terms of units sold.

According to InfoSource’s first-quarter review of South Africa’s printer and copier market, printer sales nationwide dropped by 3.3% from 30,784 in 2023 to 29,773 in 2024.

The report divides the printer market into three segments: the personal multi-functional printer segment, the office copier segment, and the production copier segment.

Konica Minolta is currently the market leader for printer sales in South Africa, holding a 16.7% market share and selling 4,985 units in the rest of the quarter.

The difference in sales between the first and third is marginal, with HP holding a market share of 15.9% and Canon a share of 15.7%. HP and Canon’s sales for the beginning of 2024 were 4,741 and 4,679, respectively.

Konica Minolta is the only company that saw positive growth of 18.2% relative to the same period in 2023. Canon and HP saw product demand drop by over 10% each.

The office copier market is by far the largest in South Africa. It comprises 92.9% of the value of the country’s printer copier market and sold 20,047 units in quarter one.

Konica Minolta is the market leader in this market, with its sales comprising 24.6% of demand compared to its competitors, HP and Xerox, which have 12.6% and 10.9%, respectively.

Black-and-white printers were in greater demand than the colour alternative, selling 11,898 and 8,149 units, respectively.

Decreases in demand were seen in both the multi-function and production printer markets.

Multi-functional printers allow users to print, copy, and scan.

MFP sales dropped by 18.8% compared to sales in the first quarter of 2023.

This drop was particularly prevalent in colour printers, which dropped by over 42%. Black and white printers, on the other hand, only saw a 10% drop.

Canon holds a market share of 41.3% in the personal MFP market, selling 3,950 units in the first quarter of the year. Brother and HP occupy second and third place, respectively, with a market share of 27.5% and 23.2%.

The production copier segment also saw a significant 25.9% drop in sales compared to 2023, with 166 printers sold in the first quarter of 2024. Although this may seem small, it is double the value of the personal MFP market.

This was mainly influenced by the drop in black and white printer sales, which fell 27.4%, compared to colour printer sales, which fell 14.8%, or the sale of four units.

Konica Minolta is the market leader in the production printer segment, selling 49 printers in the first quarter of the year and holding a market share of 29.5%.

Itec and Xerox follow with market shares of 23.5% and 16.3%, respectively. The former saw sales growth of 387.5% relative to 2023’s first quarter.

The tables below show the market leaders, units sold, market share, and changes in demand for printers in South Africa.