London, 26 February 2021 – The strong growth in PC sales seen in 2020 continued unabated at the start of 2021 as demand for mobile PCs remained high, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Despite the trading period in January 2021 being two days short of January last year, PC volume sales through Western Europe’s largest distributors increased by +20% year-on-year during the month, following a rise of +21% in Q4 2020. Growth was once more driven by notebooks, sales of which were up by +46% as distributors continued to fulfil large tenders from education and public administration. In addition, the extension of lockdown measures in many countries meant that demand for devices which enable working from home, e-learning, and connecting to friends and family stayed high.

The picture for desktops was, once again, entirely different: following a −21% drop in Q4 2020, volume sales declined by −38% year-on-year in January.

Commercial channels, which include sales to the education segment, saw the greatest increase in laptop volumes. In January, notebook sales to these channels were up by +59% year-on-year, while those of desktops dropped by −47%.  In consumer channels, the performance of notebooks was weaker, growing by +28%, but that of desktops was better, growing by +2% when compared to the same month in the previous year.

Countries with high institutional education demand saw the strongest notebook growth. These included the UK (+120%), Italy (+106%) and Spain (+58%). In France, notebook sales grew by +24% but there was a −2% drop in Germany, a country which was heavily impacted by the product supply issues that remained a challenge across the region and continued to cause fluctuations in performance. Some of the growth registered in early 2021 was driven by fulfilment of orders placed much earlier in 2020. Supply issues are expected to continue to affect the market for quite some time – at least for the first half of the year.

Y/Y PC volume growth: Western European distribution

Y/Y notebook volume growth: Western European distribution

London, 18 December 2020 – Sales of gaming PCs through European distributors remained high in early Q4 2020, including the weeks leading up to Black Friday, as governments across the region announced new lockdown measures to control the spread of Covid-19 and consumers prepared to spend more time at home, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Volume sales of gaming PCs grew to 946,000 units during the first two months of Q4, an increase of +26% on the same period last year. Growth was primarily driven by mobile systems, which represented the larger part of the market; sales of these were up by +29% whereas those of prebuilt gaming desktops increased by +5%.

There have been notable changes in the processor landscape over the past year, with AMD gaining significant ground on Intel. A year ago, Intel held 70% of gaming PC sales and AMD 30%; in early Q4 2020, Intel’s share of sales was 53% while AMD accounted for the remaining 47%.

Germany remained the largest European market for gaming PCs in distribution. In early Q4 2020, 20% of PC gaming sales through distributors were to this country and this was up by +35% compared to last year. The second-largest market, Russia, accounted for 13% of sales despite a weaker year-on-year performance. Spain and Poland (third and fourth in terms of size) saw volume sales increase by +53% and +33%, respectively.

Demand for gaming PCs has reached new heights since the outbreak of the pandemic and is expected to remain strong in the run up to Christmas. While there will be competition from new gaming consoles during the 2020 holiday season, PC demand is likely to stay high, not least due to recent announcements of new products such as AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series desktop CPUs and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs.

Gaming PC volume sales: European distribution

Gaming PC volume sales: European distribution countries

London, 5 February 2021 – Sales of desktop monitors achieved record growth of 33% in Q4 2020 driven by demand in consumer channels and from small and medium business (SMB) resellers according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Sales of desktop monitors began to accelerate at the start of the pandemic. They slowed briefly in the summer but picked up in September and kept growing throughout Q4, showing that demand was much higher than expected and has not yet been met. Investments in homeworking equipment seem to have continued and, given fourth-quarter holiday sales, gaming monitors saw even more interest than earlier in the year.

Desktop monitors: Volume sales by target customer, WE distribution

The record growth was due to sales of both consumer and business models. Due to lockdowns and office closures, sales to corporate resellers saw another quarter of decline, falling by -6% year-on-year. By contrast, sales to SMB have been recovering, growing by +18% in the same period, and those to retail have more than doubled. However, the need for homeworking and study devices has done more to drive growth than the special campaigns and sales that usually spur sales this time of the year. In fact, the backlog of orders was so high that there was no real need for vendors to incentivise customers.

When it comes to gaming or premium business models, where competition intensifies, the reasons for increased sales are slightly different. For gamers looking for models with refresh rates higher than 144 Hz, the choice keeps growing while prices keep going down. For homeworkers, it is all about specifications like ethernet input that enables monitors to become display and docking station in one, USB-C ports, good quality cameras or ergonomic features: distributors saw significant increases in sales of models with these features in Q4 2020. The majority of vendors are currently facing supply issues – especially for mainstream screen sizes like 21.5″, 23.8″ and 27″ – and this has changed the portfolio of monitors sold: the growth in sales of larger models, curved-screen devices or even small portable monitors may not necessarily reflect customer preferences but the choices they currently have.

Desktop monitors: Volume share by specification, Q4-20 vs Q4-19,

WE distribution

With sales through Western European distributors growing +23% year on year in 2020, Q4 closed one of the best-ever years for the desktop monitor market. This increase has shown that the importance of good screens for home offices was previously underestimated. Investment in homeworking devices happened at different paces in different countries so, although overall growth will probably slow down, demand should still remain high in those parts of Europe where sales picked up later or more slowly and, as a result, Q1 2021 will show increases compared to the first months of 2020 that may carry on into Q2. However, the extent to which the market grows will really depend on the level of supply as this remains challenging and poses major obstacle for many vendors. 

London, 26 Nov 2020 – Sales of desktop monitors through distributors in Western Europe (WE) grew in early Q4 2020, continuing the trend that began at the start of the pandemic. Over this period, sales have been driven not only by continuous high demand from consumers but also by recovery in the business segment, according to data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

In the first month of the quarter, combined sales of business- and consumer-targeted monitors were up by +21% year-on-year. While most of the growth in Q3 as a whole was due to consumer models, sales were up in both segments in October. As expected, consumer e-tail and retail drove the change, but sales to small and medium business (SMB) resellers and business e-tailers also improved. Sales to corporate resellers continued to fall, declining by -8% year-on-year.

Desktop monitors: Volume share by channel, WE distribution

In the past, November (which includes the weeks leading up to Black Friday) has been a very strong month for consumer monitors. In 2018 and 2019, however, sales began picking up in October, and distributors have seen the same thing happen this year: sales to consumer channels (e-tail and retail) in Germany, the UK, Italy and France were more than 20% higher than in September. In the UK and France, October sales grew by over 50% year-on-year whereas in Spain they fell by -6%. It is interesting to note that sales to SMB and business e-tail resellers during this month also grew, indicating a recovery in the business space. In Germany and Italy, sales to these channels grew by +44% and +35% year-on-year, respectively.

Desktop monitors: Consumer channel volume share by

price band, WE distribution

This year has also seen a change in the prices of models sold. Last year, the number of monitors costing less than €200 that distributors sold to consumer channels grew: this year’s increase has been driven by expensive models. Over 26% of monitors sold in October 2020 had 27" screens, but the largest growth was in sales of those with 23.8", 34" or 49" screens. Sales of portable 15.6" screens also increased significantly.

Gaming monitor sales were already growing before the pandemic, and the new circumstances have only accelerated this well-established trend. Increasing competition between vendors offering more and more exciting, high-spec (165Hz and above) models has not only fuelled interest but also pushed prices down, further spurring demand. In October, almost 20% of monitors sold to consumer channels had a refresh rate of 75Hz (a sales increase of +230% year-on-year), 10% were 144Hz models, over 4% were 165Hz, and 2% had an even higher refresh rate of 240Hz. The average selling price of monitors with the most popular screen sizes and high refresh rates was 10% lower than in the same period last year.

With October and November seeing the greatest demand for monitors, Q4 volume sales are expected to remain strong. However, after quarters of growth, the gradual slowdown in the monitor market, and component shortages, will trigger more aggressive behaviour from vendors – and any increased price competition may affect desktop monitor revenues into next year.

London, 05 Oct 2020 – Demand driven by remote working and distance learning has kept the printer market rising through August, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Despite summer holidays, August consumer printer sales grew by +17.3% year-on-year, driven by models targeted at consumers. There was high double-digit growth in laser multifunction printers (MFPs) with the biggest increase (+43.9%), followed by inkjet SFPs (+36.3%), and a more modest improvement for inkjet MFPs (+15.7%) and +3.8% in sales of single-function laser printers (laser SFPs). Back-to-school shopping has been an important factor in increased sales to consumers.

Graph 1: Consumer printer volume sales: Y/Y change

by category – WE distribution

The month saw notable increases in volume sales of consumer printers to retailers, etailer consumers and small and medium resellers as resellers stocked up for this year’s back-to-school season. Sales to retailers, which account for 61% of overall sales in August, were up by +15.8%, but it was etailer consumers that performed best; their growth of +34.7% was followed by the +30.6% of small and medium resellers.

Spain, Italy and France are the main drivers of the Western European consumer printer market, and all registered outstanding volume growth in August – although this came on the back of weak performance in same period last year. The market in Spain grew the most, with printer sales targeted to consumers up by +128% on the same period last year, followed by Italy (+69.4%) and France (+43.4%).

In Germany, sales of consumer-targeted printers declined in August (-11.9%), continuing the trend that started in June and is mainly due to the negative performance of inkjet MFPs (-11.1%) and laser SFPs (-41.4%) which together account for 83.1% of sales in this country.

Similarly, a decline in sales of inkjet MFPs (-40.1%) and laser SFPs (-58.6%), which together account for about 95% of sales in August, heavily impacted the United Kingdom’s overall sales performance (-39.5%).

Graph 2: Consumer printer volume sales: Y/Y change

by country – major WE economies

It is a matter of debate whether this uptick is a short-term trend or if the way people and organisations will purchase printers in future is beginning to change. However, Covid infection rates are rising again (at an exponential daily rate in some countries) and the threat of new lockdowns across Europe is real, so we expect that the demand for consumer printers will remain strong in the months to come.

London, 07 Sept 2020 – Western Europe’s largest distributors saw printer sales boom at the end of the first quarter of 2020 and then fall in the second quarter, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company. The sudden rise – to meet the demand created by widespread lockdowns – prompted an impressive increase in sales of inkjet SFPs (single-function printers). Distributors also sold more consumer printers than in the same period last year.

Although inkjet SFPs saw the biggest year-on-year improvement, sales of inkjet MFPs (multifunction printers) also increased during March, as did those of laser MFPs – albeit on a more modest scale. Laser SFPs followed a different course, with sales falling and remaining below those seen in 2019.

          Graph 1: Printer volume sales: Y/Y change by category – WE distribution

The sudden rise and fall in sales of inkjet SFPs contrasts with the consistently flat performance of these devices in the first half of last year: sales were up by +45.6% in March but distributors sold more than ten thousand fewer units in May 2020 than in May 2019. This suggests that increased demand caused a supply shortage. Sales of inkjet MFPs, consistently the most popular printers, also spiked in March. It is possible that increased demand for inkjet SFPs was prompted by distributors and vendors reaching the end of their supply of inkjet MFPs near the start of July.

Pricing may also have been a factor as average selling price (ASP) of inkjet SFPs fell between January and April, then rose in May and June before falling again in July pushing sales back up to a level corresponding to a +9.4% year-on-year increase. The March sales increase for these products came in the middle of this ASP decline, whilst the subsequent reduction in sales coincided with the restoration of higher prices.

                 Graph 2: Inkjet SFPs volume sales & ASP – WE distribution

Inkjet SFPs in the 100 to 150 euro price band performed well in both quarters, with sales increasing by +50.4% year-on-year in Q1 and +26% in Q2. This positive trend continued into July when growth increased again to +44.3%.

Business and consumer products contributed equally to the March inkjet SFP sales spike. However, in Western Europe, overall sales to business-targeted models declined by -11.1% in the first quarter and by -20.1% in the second. Meanwhile, the consumer-targeted printers increased by +14.6% in the first quarter but only +4.9% in the second reflecting the softening of the market as spring turned into summer. Most inkjet printers sold are MFPs, and the pandemic has affected sales of business and consumer inkjet MFPs in quite different ways. The growth in sales of consumer models reached a height of +36.3% year-on-year, with ink-tank devices doing particularly well. Meanwhile, sales of the equivalent business printers, far from being boosted, fell steadily, with the year-on-year decline increasing from -5.7% in February to -32.9% in May, -19.2% in June, and -43.6% in July.

Given the pandemic, it is not surprising that consumer models have performed well and that the overall market has been challenging. Developments in the next few months will continue to shape sector-specific growth and determine both how long the consumer boom lasts and whether the business sector makes a good recovery.

London, 14 January 2021 – After a challenging year for enterprise networking, European revenues returned to typical levels in the last two months of 2020 according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Enterprise networking 4-week rolling revenue index

(average 4-week revenue 2019 = 100)

The 4-week rolling revenue value remained under that of the same week in 2019 from week 12 of 2020 until week 44 when it began to return to a more reasonable standard, almost matching the previous year. We are still not out of the crisis – sales in the last four weeks of 2020 are still below 2019 levels – but 4-week revenues are, for first time in a while, above the 2019 average, which is good news for the networking industry.

Enterprise networking 2020 4-week rolling revenue index by country

Germany is the main driver of the recovery with significantly improved revenues since week 44 of 2020. Networking in Germany has not been impacted as much by the pandemic as that in other countries, and the strong performance of the sector in the last two months of 2020 drove the increase in European revenues.

However, there is, as yet, no sign of an upward trend in the UK. This is partly because levels of working from home were higher here even before the pandemic (see graph below): with much of the workforce continuing to connect to corporate networks from offsite, businesses had no urgent need to invest in onsite networking infrastructure. Lockdowns also led to a significant reduction in the expansion of office space and this, too, had a negative effect on sales of networking products.

Percentage of employed persons working from home sometimes or usually

in 2019. Source: Cedefop

Enterprise switching 2020 4-week rolling revenue index by country

The main revenue stream in the enterprise networking sector is switching, the segment most impacted by the crisis. The pattern seen here follows that observed for the sector as a whole with the UK index hovering around the low sixties over the last three months of 2020 whilst Germany grew stronger and drove up revenues.

Enterprise wireless networking 2020 4-week rolling revenue index by country

Wireless networking was less impacted by soft demand as commercial, retail and hospitality spaces began to reopen in the summer. Here too, however, we see a recent positive trend across Germany and Europe with the UK failing to make the most of the end of year boost.

Germany is clearly leading the way to recovery and the same pattern has recently been seen in other countries including Spain, Italy and, to a lesser extent, France. Working from home and the economic slowdown have significantly affected the on-premises networking infrastructure market, especially the important switching segment, so the upward European trend at the end of 2020 is good news.

The recent rather low UK revenues are partly due to a heavily service-oriented economy: the financial impact of a workforce stuck at home is less than that seen in more industrial countries like Germany where factories need employees onsite and infrastructure investments to enable them to function and ensure economic continuity. In other words, the negative UK trend is not automatically a sign that the country has been more impacted by the crisis than the rest of Europe, the explanation instead lies in structural differences. With UK lockdowns in full force for at least another two months, we are not expecting much change in the early weeks of 2021.

London, 23 October 2020 – Although the overall client SSD market has seen low demand during the pandemic, lockdowns and home working have had a positive effect on consumer-channel sales, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

 

                                     Client SSDs: Year-on-year Revenue Growth



The impact of the pandemic on the client SSD market is clear when we look at revenues: growth in the first quarter has been followed by two quarters of year-on-year revenue declines. However, some of the strong demand in Q1 2020 was a result of the news of supply disruption as China and Korea felt the first effects of COVID in January. Sales were up as resellers aimed to put themselves in a position to overcome any problems with PC component supply chains.

                          Client SSDs: Revenue Share by Type of Customer



The CONTEXT distribution panel shows the dynamics of the pandemic-impacted client SSD market. Revenues from consumer-oriented customers – retail chains and consumer etailers – are growing by +7.2% year-on-year whereas those from the business channel – small and medium resellers and business-focused etailers – have dropped by more than -20% compared to the same period last year. This is not unexpected given that business closures and economic slowdowns are affecting the ability of small and medium businesses to invest in computer equipment while a workforce based at home – and negotiating technology access with other members of their family – is purchasing more home-PC components.

                               1TB NVMe Revenue Share by Type of Customer


 

                                         Client SSD Price per GB (Euro)



 

Another interesting SSD data set is the price per GB, which is playing its part in the decline of revenues over the third quarter. The cost of 1GB of storage has fallen -12% between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020. Capacity demand is, therefore, not as low as the revenue drop suggests: distributors report that it has actually been flat year-on-year. The Q1 spike in price per GB is a result of the high demand seen during that quarter, and the sharp drop in Q3 could be a consequence of resellers reducing prices to get rid of excess stock following low demand in Q2 and Q3.

We expect the consumer channel will continue to drive the client SSD market over the coming quarters as some countries in Europe reimpose lockdowns. However, the decrease in the price per GB will certainly make it easier for financially uncertain businesses to make greater investments than in the last two quarters and this will also have a positive effect on SSD sales.

Impact of COVID-19 on new 3D printer shipments inconsistent across sectors and regions in 2020

A strong rebound in China’s domestic economy, explosive worldwide growth in Kit & Hobby printer shipments, and Western government subsidies were not enough to overcome a difficult year for 3D printer shipment revenues 

LONDON, 15 April 2021 – The impact of COVID-19 on the global 3D printing industry in 2020 was vastly varied: there was new demand in some regions and sectors while business was significantly recessed in others. Worldwide revenue from 3D printing services reportedly grew marginally over the year, thus leading to nominal growth for the industry as a whole (that is, services, software, materials and printer system hardware combined) with some of this growth aided by way of much-needed local government subsidies in the West. Further clouding the nature of any revenue growth seen in 2020 was consolidation, a key trend for 2020 whereby companies grew by way of merger as opposed to by way of organic industry growth. Focusing just on printer hardware, revenue from global shipments of new printer systems fell −4% from 2019 levels, in spite of a strong rebound in China’s domestic economy that led to increased year-on-year sales of Industrial printers in that region; an explosion at the other end of the market in the Kit & Hobby sector across the globe; and a select few Western hardware manufacturers seeing spotty growth. New Industrial printers accounted for 52% of revenues from sales of systems but, with many key end-markets in the West delaying major capital expenditure until after the pandemic, revenue from this sector slid by −21% compared to 2019. Conversely, demand for consumer-centric kits selling for a few hundred dollars soared as many people looked for new hobbies to while away their time at home: revenues from this newly tracked segment almost doubled in 2020.

Chart 1: 3D Printer System Shipment Revenues by Class

INDUSTRIAL ($100K+)

Shipments of Industrial printers were marginally higher (+4%) in Q4 2020 than in the same period the previous year mostly because of increases in the domestic market in China (83% of printers sold in the country came from Chinese companies). While this Y/Y growth rate for the quarter was low, the good news is that sequential unit shipments continued to rise – as they have done since their nadir at the onset of the pandemic in Q1 2020 – with +24% more printers shipped in Q4 2020 than in Q3 2020. A year-on-year growth of +11% in the metal printers market during the last quarter of the year was mostly thanks to sales of new Binder Jetting printers in the West and increased shipments of Powder Bed Fusion models into China. Over the full year, Industrial printer shipments were down −21% with the only increases coming from lower-volume classes of metal printers including Directed Energy Deposition solutions (+9% more printers using this technology shipped globally in 2020 than in 2019) and Binder Jetting shipments (up +30% from 2019). Regionally, Chinese vendors recovered after the hard lockdown of Q1 2020, and saw shipments in this overall price class rise by +7%, while other companies – most of which are from the West (that is, the US and Europe or the US and Israel in the case of Stratasys) – saw collective unit shipments in this class drop by −29%. Most new Industrial printers still sold into North America (34% in 2020, down from 41% in 2019) but 30% went to China in 2020 thus moving it ahead of Western Europe. Leading vendors over the year in terms of unit volumes included UnionTech, Stratasys, HP, Carbon, EOS, 3D Systems, Farsoon, HBD, GE Additive and Desktop Metal.

DESIGN ($20K–$100K)

Design-class printer shipments were largely flat in Q4 2020 falling by only a marginal −1% compared to the same period the previous year. Once again, a greater number of printers were shipped to the US and Europe than to Asia with American companies Stratasys, 3D Systems and EnvisionTEC (recently acquired by Desktop Metal) continuing to lead the market. Total unit shipments for the full year were down −15% with industry leaders Stratasys and 3D Systems both challenged.

PROFESSIONAL ($2.5K–$20K)

While the first part of the year saw a surge in shipments of Professional printers, growth slowed in H2 2020 and shipments in the fourth quarter were actually down −16% from a year before. Demand from homeworkers was strong in H1 2020 but, over the year as a whole, shipments ended up being −6% down on 2019. Although some vendors (EnvisionTEC, for example) reported nice growth, market leaders Ultimaker and Formlabs both saw year-on-year falls in unit volumes. Even so, these two leading vendors saw revenues rise having introduced well-received products at higher price points in 2020. Composite 3D printers gained traction in this class during this year as well; the category has, until now, largely been owned by Markforged but key competitor Desktop Metal began shipping a composite model in Q4 2020.

PERSONAL (<$2.5K fully assembled)

Sales of cheaper, fully assembled printers have been on the wane over the past few years as demand shifted down to Kits or upward into the Professional class, but demand (and shipments) in this Personal class rebounded during the pandemic. In Q4 2020, total Personal 3D printer shipments rose by +49% from the year before thanks mostly to the explosion in interest in LCD models. There was strong demand throughout the year thanks to pandemic-related working and studying from home and increased hobby time. Factory closures (especially in China) caused problems in Q1 2020 but supply came roaring back in later quarters and resulted in a +49% year-on-year growth in shipments for this price class.

KIT & HOBBY (DIY self-assembly kits)

Companies such as China’s Creality 3D and the Czech Republic’s Prusa Research have helped to bring order to this difficult-to-quantify sector in recent years. DIY printer shipments exploded in 2020 with Creality 3D leading the charge, reportedly shipping over 1M units over the year (989K of which fall into this Kit & Hobby category with the rest being fully built units shown in the Personal price class). While shipments trailed off a bit in the final quarter, full-year data shows growth of +98% from 2019 to 2020. Creality 3D alone saw shipments increase by +116% and was so successful that their revenues outstripped those of most companies selling Industrial printers. As most kits are imported as parts, they often do not carry the same import duties as their finished-good counterparts, allowing them to be sold at ultra-low price points helping to encourage open architecture and the “tinkering” associated with hobbyists.

Chart 2: 3D Printer Shipments by Class
(Note separate scales)

2021 and beyond

With Industrial, Design and Professional printer shipments all trailing 2019 totals, 2020 was a difficult year for the higher end of the 3D printer market. Growth is set to return in 2021. While Design and Professional shipments are projected to rise even above pre-pandemic 2019 totals this year, US and European companies are still offering relatively conservative forecasts for the Industrial sector, predicting that while shipments will rise above last year, sales will continue to lag behind those of 2019. There is hopeful anticipation that growth will accelerate in H2 2021 and a full rebound of this market is now projected for 2022+. Further use of 3D printing for mass production is still the key for accelerating growth and technologies such as Powder Bed Fusion and Vat Photopolymerization (for plastics) and Binder Jetting (for metals) are poised to help with this push.

* Price-class categorisation of PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, DESIGN and INDUSTRIAL based on fully assembled, finished-good products; new KIT&HOBBY class defined by DIY assembly required.

LONDON, 14 January 2021 – As the West emerged from early lockdowns and the East continued to recover from the initial months of the pandemic, there were rebounds in the Professional, Design and Industrial printer segments with shipments up +9%, +16% and +22% respectively between Q2 and Q3 2020. However, quarterly totals lagged behind those for 2019 and, for these key groups, were down by −12%, −11% and −21% year-on-year. The robust demand from shut-in consumers and working-from-home professionals for finished-good Personal 3D printers seen in the first half of the year settled down a bit in the third quarter but, although shipments were −7% down on Q2 2020, they were up +2% from the same period in the previous year.

The fourth quarter saw new mitigation efforts in many Western countries. This delayed a more robust rebound, and a significant recovery is not now expected until the second half of 2021 when vaccine distribution has been ramped up around the globe. While not as harsh on many businesses as the lockdowns seen in the first half of the year, fourth-quarter shelter-in-place orders still limited international and regional business travel and caused many companies to keep near-term capital expenditure on hold thereby limiting new 3D printer installations and new orders in 2020. Nonetheless, many companies have reported strong interest and pent-up demand, sparking expectations of a post-pandemic bump in 2021.

Industrial

Most all of the Top 10 3D printer vendors – including the Western companies 3D Systems, Carbon, EOS, HP, Markforged, Roboze and Stratasys – saw a sequential rise in unit shipments in Q3 2020 with double-digit growth in most cases. China-based companies such as Farsoon, HBD and UnionTech, which were already on their way to recovery in Q2, registered shipment levels rising above those seen a year before. Newcomers to the category like Flashforge, Nexa3D and Origin (recently acquired by Stratasys) also helped improve printer shipments for the quarter.

Design

While June–September is usually the weakest period for Design printer sales, in Q3 2020 shipments rose +16% from their nadir in Q2. Stratasys and 3D Systems, who lead this category in terms of volume sales, saw nice sequential shipment growth. The other leading vendor in this category, EnvisionTEC, also reported year-on-year revenue growth but noted success more from accelerated utilization rather than by way of increased printer sales thus far.

Professional

Professional 3D printing enjoyed strong demand in H1 2020 from people working from home but this was muted in Q3. While vendors like Markforged, Photocentric, Raise3D, Stratasys (with part of its MakerBot line) and others enjoyed double-digit year-on-year shipment growth, the total number of this type of printer shipped globally was −12% less than the previous year. The trend toward more feature-rich, expensive products continued, led by unit-volume leaders Ultimaker and Formlabs.

Personal

While historically dominated by the material extrusion FDM/FFF devices that still accounted for 79% of desktop printers sold in Q3 2020, LCD-based vat photopolymerization printers remained a hot category with +42% more of these being shipped globally than the year before. Taiwan’s Phrozen and China’s Longer 3D were standout vendors in this period. Kits* (DIY products typically selling for <$500 and not accounted for in the graph above) continued to take share from fully assembled printers, with China’s Creality remaining far and away the global leader in terms of unit volumes.

2021 and beyond

The industry is itching to showcase itself again at both regional and global events. Many companies held back from announcing new products in 2020 in the hope of show-and-tell, in-person launch opportunities in 2021. Major 3D printing events (such as RAPID+TCT, AMUG and FORMNEXT) were cancelled or scaled back in 2020 but are gearing up for strong attendance whenever and wherever allowed to take place in 2021. Companies continue to report new interest from net-new vertical markets and are hopefully anticipating that this interest will turn into capital equipment purchases in 2021 and beyond.

Metal binder jetting in the Industrial price-class segment and composite 3D printing in Industrial, Design and Professional price points are key printer segments to watch in 2021 with new and established companies’ alike shipping new printers in these categories. With Desktop Metal, HP and others joining ExOne and Digital Metal in championing binder jetting for serial production of metal parts, this is a technology that looks likely to make significant advances in the year ahead. New vendors of composites printers – currently dominated by Markforged in the Professional and Design price categories – are set to push this category forward in the coming year as well. Portfolio expansion – best exemplified by Stratasys’ expansion of their SLA efforts and forthcoming entrance into powder bed fusion polymers – should also help re-grow the global 3D printer market. Other companies look set to grow by focusing on existing technologies and industries that have already adopted 3D printing: for example, 3D Systems has taken the strategic decision to focus on Healthcare (including dental) and Industrial markets (such as for volume-serial production) with progress already announced against that goal in Q4.

In the longer term, metal and polymer printers focused on volume production are set to lead the growth of the 3D printing industry. Revenue growth from Industrial 3D printer system shipments (which accounted for 63% of global hardware revenues in Q3 2020) are projected to increase by a solid +15% year-on-year in 2021 and see a four-year CAGR of +19% to 2024. Within that, strong areas of bullishness are technologies specifically focused on volume production, including powder bed fusion (SLS, MJF, HSS, etc.) and vat photopolymerization (SLA, DLP, DLS/CLIP, etc.) for polymers, and binder jetting for metals.

Industrial Printer System Revenue Forecast by Material and Process

* Price-class categorization of Personal, Professional, Design and Industrial based on fully-assembled, finished-good products; Kits not shown here.