The tentacles of the current recession are extending themselves to the Business Machines market.

ChangeWave's latest corporate purchasing survey (Feb 2008) asked 2,204 buyers about their company's 2nd quarter business machine plans - including all-in-one devices, printers and copiers.

As the chart shows, only 16% say their company will buy or lease new business machines in the 2nd quarter - a 5-pt decline since our previous survey in November 2007.

In a further sign of malaise, all types of business machine categories are experiencing the drop.

Key competitors in the sector - most notably Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Canon (CAJ), Lexmark (LXK) and Xerox (XRX) - have the most to lose. Expect a big battle among these giants to maintain their share of a rapidly shrinking corporate pie.