POS printer market was hit first by crisis, but is on its way to recovery?

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: POS printer market was hit first by crisis, but is on its way to recovery?.

From 2010 to 2011, the overall market value of POS Printers in Western Europe rose by 15.9% from 146.6 million in 2010 to 169.9 million in 2011. The market increased by 8.4% in terms of value and by 7.5% in terms of quantity. These figures clearly reflect the positive impact of the current economic situation, as the most recent study by Interconnection Consulting shows.

1 Station Printers Dominate the Western European Market
Maximum growth can be observed with Thermal Printers. Thermal Printers now dominate the market with 77.6% and leave behind all other segments. Shares of 1 Station Ink and Hybrid 2 Station Printers plummeted to 1.5% respectively 5.7% and are forecasted to remain at a low level. Despite the gain of 3.3 %, Ink 2 Station Printers come in last, at 0.4%. Mobile Thermal Printers make up 6.8% of the market and Hybrids keep gradually increasing shares in Western Europe.

Fiscal Printers Are En Vogue in Europe...
... but do not cross borders. As there is no global fiscal standard and countries have adopted different approaches the transfer of a developed fiscal printer solution between countries is almost impossible. That is why - although fiscal printers carry additional elements such as security features (fiscal seal, secure memory etc.) and communicate extremely safely with PCs or other systems and although time and date of fiscal printers are secure - implementing a fiscal system can be complicated and costly. Fiscal printers are offered mostly by local providers, localizing it for a specific country. International players are not represented in local markets. As for local markets, Germany is leading with a market share of 22.3% in 2011, followed closely by the UK (15.3%).

What Does the Future Hold for the POS Printer Market?
Reliability is the main buying argument in this industry, is a conclusion of the report. "Besides reliability, modern POS systems must include high and consistent operating speed, easy use and rich functionality", says Astrid Maier from Interconnection. A successful development and implementation of these factors is clearly demonstrated by the main market players like Epson and Citizen.