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Led by PC and printer major HP Inc., the worldwide hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market saw overall shipments grow 5.6 per cent year over year to approximately 27 million units in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report.

However, shipment value during the quarter declined 5.1 per cent to $11.1 billion, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker on Friday.

Strong shipment growth in the second half of the year was responsible for the 0.4 per cent overall unit growth for the full year 2020.

Market value declined 12.3 per cent for the whole year, however, due to low shipments of high-end office devices.

Similar to last quarter, the common theme in Q4 was the increased demand for low-end consumer inkjets and monochrome laser devices, which were readily available toward the end of the year at competitive prices.

Both inkjet and laser markets posted year-over-year gains with shipments increasing 7.9 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, said the report.

In the laser market, low-end A4 monochrome laser shipments grew year over year due to working from home and home education needs.

HP Inc. outperformed all other companies in the top 5 in terms of shipment growth.

The vendor delivered a year-over-year increase of 13.7 per cent with worldwide shipments of nearly 11.2 million units in the quarter.

HP was followed by the Canon Group, Epson, Brother and the Kyocera Group in the top five.