Canon India Pvt Ltd on Thursday launched a new series of inkjet printers under 'Pixma' sub-brand, aiming to increase its market share in India to 30 per cent by 2007 from the existing 25 per cent.
Priced in the range of Rs 3,995 to Rs 27,995, the new range has been positioned as a life-style product for households.
The launch, which marks the unveiling of nine new products, will see a transformation of inkjet printers as a PC-linked product into the photo-space, Alok Bharadwaj, director and general manager (consumer imaging & information division), Canon India, told a news conference in New Delhi.
The new series for inkjet printers allows home-printing (e-mail printing, PC printing and camera photo-printing) and personal printing (printing photos from cellphones and printing while on the move), he said.
Inkjet printers, which earlier depended on the growth of personal computers for sales, can piggyback on the higher penetration of digital cameras and camera-phones in India for sales growth, Bharadwaj said.
The new products will also allow printing on both the sides of the paper, bringing down the cost for users, he said.
"Pixma represents our futuristic endeavours in the evolution of photo-printing. It is a state-of-the-art synthesis of high quality and great speed," he said.
Canon India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pte, is second to HP (50 per cent) in market share for inkjet printers in India.
Bharadwaj said Canon's new range of printers allowed a variety of personal printing applications like download and printing, CD printing, WiFi (wire-free) printing, etc.
The inkjet market in India was 6,66,000 units in 2003 and is expected to grow to 9,00,000 units by 2007. "Canon aims at capturing 30 per cent of this market by 2007," he said.
The southern region has grown at a phenomenal 80 per cent over the last six months and Canon sees south as the region with the maximum photo-printing and the new emerging IT hub for Indian market.
He said the company plans to increase its national distributors from 100 to 120 and dealer network from 2,700 to 3,000 by 2005 to boost sales of the new range of products.
Canon India will also begin a seven-city roadshow for the Pixma products, which include Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and other major cities.