Slovenian shipments of hardcopy peripherals (HCPs) declined 5.3% YOY to less than 147,350 devices, while market value grew 5.1% to $52.2 mln in 2007. The top 3 vendors on the Slovenian volume market in 2007 were HP, Canon, and Samsung. Together, they controlled almost 75% of the market and were the only players exceeding a 10% market share each. In total, laser devices accounted for 45.6% of total shipments and inkjet almost 53%. The steepest growth was seen in the color laser MFP category, with shipments skyrocketing 162.2%, albeit from a relatively small base, according to IDC.

The worldwide solid state drive (SSD) market is for real and generated nearly $400 mln in revenues in 2007. SSD revenue will increase at a 70% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2007-2012 and unit shipments at a slightly faster rate of 76%, IDC predicts, according to IDC.

In 2007, the Croatian HCP market grew 2.2% in volume and 2.1% in value YOY to almost 200,000 units, worth $54.4 mln. Accounting for more than 62% of shipments, single-function (SF) printers - particularly inkjet - remained the most popular device in the Croatian HCP market in 2007. However, printers have been losing market share to multifunctional peripherals (MFPs), sales of which surged almost 25% in 2007 to account for 37.6% of total market volume. Shipments of color laser peripheral grew 27.3% year on year in 2007. MFPs accounted for 17.3% of total color laser shipments in Croatia in 2007, up from just under 13% in 2006. The top 3 vendors in the Croatian hardcopy devices market in 2007 - HP, Canon, and Epson - retained their rankings from 2006. Together, they accounted for more than 78% of total shipments in 2007. IDC expects the Croatian market for hardcopy devices to grow, on average, 2.6% year on year over the next five years, with MFPs fueling the growth, according to IDC.

According to IDC, the volume of shipments of multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) in 2008 in Romania reached almost 250,000 units, which represents 24% YTY growth.

According to IDC the identity and access management (IAM) market in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) was valued at $89.4 mln in 2007. The market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1% to reach $189.3 mln by 2012.

According to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals (HCP) Tracker, the combined printer and MFP market grew 6.3% YTY to reach 6.5 mln units in Q1 2008. Prices of A4 monochrome and color laser MFPs hit new low at $160 and $250 respectively following aggressive trade-in and end-user promotions. The A3 laser MFP market grew 16.4% sequentially in conjunction with the fiscal year-end closing of most Japanese vendors.

China’s hardcopy peripheral market share of inkjet printers has fallen drastically from 31% in Q3 2007 to 23% in Q4 2007, according to IDC. Sales of laser printers were also higher than inkjet printers for the first time in Q4 2007. Laser printers accounted for nearly 30% of the total printing peripheral market in Q4 2007. IDC predicts that the total shipment of laser printers will surpass inkjet printers in 2008, making laser printers the key product in China’s printing peripheral market.

According to IDC, China’s hardcopy peripheral market achieved 9.9 mln units in 2007 and $2.58 bln in revenue, representing an increase of 9.6% and 17.6% over 2006 respectively. IDC estimates shipments of hardcopy peripherals to increase 8.0% and reach 10.7 mln units in 2008.

Both the inkjet and laser multifunction peripherals enjoyed a healthy growth of 11% and 13% respectively in Q4 2007 in China, according to IDC. The demand from the public, education and financial sectors increased the sales of the SDM (Serial Dot Matrix) printer, resulting in a 16% increase in Q4 2007. IDC expects demand for SDM printers to continue through 2008.

In the Open SAN market, which grew 17.2% YOY, EMC lead with 24.3% revenue share, followed by IBM with 17.5%. The NAS market grew 10.5% year over year, led by EMC with 41.2% revenue share and followed by Network Appliance with 28.3% share. The iSCSI SAN market continues to show strong momentum, posting 74.9% revenue growth compared to the prior year’s quarter. Network Appliance continues to lead the market with 19.6% share, followed by EMC with 17.4% share, according to IDC.

The total network disk storage market (NAS Combined with Open SAN) posted 15.8% YTY growth in Q4 2007 to more than $3.9 bln. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market with 27.8% revenue share, followed by IBM and HP with 15.4% and 12.5% revenue share, respectively, according to IDC.

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues posted 9.8% YTY growth in Q4 2007 and totaling $5.3 bln, according to the IDC. For the quarter, the total disk storage systems market grew to $7.5 bln, up 7.6% from the prior year’s Q4 2007. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped reach 1,645 petabytes, growing 56.3%.

Shipments of graphics devices reached 31.64 mln units in Q4 2007. That represents 50.3% growth YTY, Jon Peddie Research reports.

Overall PC unit sales climbed 14% in 2007, while printer units rose just 3%, Bernstein Research said. The status of printer sales trailing PCs is in contrast to 5 years ago, when PC unit sales rose 11% and printer units grew by 15%. In 2007, for every 100 consumer PCs sold, there were only 90 inkjet printers. In 2003, 136 inkjets were sold for every 100 consumer PCs. Inkjet printer unit sales will grow 6% to 8% a year.

Digital photo frames will be the world’s fastest-growing application for small/medium display in 2008, with global revenue rising to $699 mln, up 91.4% from $395 mln in 2007, according to iSuppli. Mobile handsets will continue to dominate the market, accounting for $15.9 bln in revenue in 2008, up 17.3% from $13.5 bln in 2007.

ABI Research forecasts that by the year 2015, processors, microcontrollers, sensors, and servos will reach a collective $12 bln in worldwide revenue. About 48% of component revenue can be attributed to task robotics, while 51% will come from the entertainment robotics segment. The remaining 1% to 2% is derived from security and educational segments.

Worldwide shipments of removable hard disk drives will increase at a 65% CAGR, totaling over 3 mln R-HDD solutions and additional disk cartridges in 2012, according to IDC. Total worldwide R-HDD revenue will grow equally as strong with a 52% CAGR.

ABI Research expects high-definition drives to bring in revenues of about $2 bln by 2012. About 30% of consumers use DVDs for data storage. However the adequate 4 GB/disk capacity of conventional DVD-Rs and the steep cost per gigabyte of high-definition disks will limit consumer demand for HD as a storage medium.

The combined market for printers, multifunction products and copiers in India will grow at an 8.9% compound annual growth rate through 2011, with shipments increasing to 3.6 mln units. Flatbed MFPs will see the highest growth with a 20.0% CAGR through 2011, Gartner says.

The total network disk storage market (NAS Combined with Open SAN) posted a healthy 12.8% YTY growth in Q2 2007 to $3.1 bln. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market with 26.9% revenue share, followed by HP and IBM with 14.7% and 12.1% revenue share. In the Open SAN market, which reached $2.4 bln and grew 14.2% YTY, EMC was #1 vendor with 23.8% revenue share, followed by HP with 17.1%. The NAS market grew 7.8% year over year to $639 mln, led by EMC with 38.5% revenue share and followed by Network Appliance with 27.0% share. The iSCSI SAN market continues to show strong momentum, posting 57.2% revenue growth year over year, reaching $191 mln in Q2 2006. Network Appliance continues to lead the market with 21.3% share, followed by EMC with 16.8% share.

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues in Q2 2007 grew 6.2% from Q2 2006 to $4.3 bln, marking 18 consecutive quarters of YTY growth. For the quarter, the total disk storage systems market grew to $6.1 bln up 5.9% from Q2 2006. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped grew 50.1% from Q2 2006, reaching 1.2 exabytes.

Nearly 200 mln HDDs will ship with NAND caches worldwide in 2011, In-Stat says.