[Q] What is the printing market size in terms of usage?
[A] Despite everything going electronic the requirement for hardcopy in India is still very high. That is why the printer market is still seeing a high growth rate. It is estimated that 140 billion pages will be printed by 2014 in India. We expect cloud computing and increased personal printing to drive the growth of printers in the coming months.
The per page image is going to grow in printing, as India is still a growing market when it comes to printers. Research shows that a person prints more than 700 pages in his lifetime, and that number can grow, so we see demand for printers to remain strong. In India, tier two and three locations are also growing as their purchasing power increases. In fact in the smaller towns where there is an increased use of mobile devices we find people using wifi enabled printers. Their frequency of printing may not be high, but there is a strong printer growth in the home segment in smaller locations.
[Q] What are the key drivers for the printer market today?
[A] It is now apparent that there is a shift in the way computing and printing is going today. As enterprise segments and SMBs move to the cloud, we expect their printing pattern to change.
E-Governance initiatives that are being implemented across all government departments. All critical departments– UID, HRD, Police, State – are getting connected. There is centralisation in the operations, so we see increased demand for printing emerging from this.
The other segment is personal printing at homes. This is because more and more people are travelling and going on holidays. So there is a demand in e tickets, which means printing at home, then there are personal photographs, as well as education at home. We see an increased printing happening due to class projects. The fourth driver is the increased use of mobile devices like smart phone, tablet or laptop which are now being used to print documents and photos wirelessly.
[Q] How is Canon geared up to work with these technology drivers?
[A] Since these technologies are changing the usage pattern at a very fast pace, we have launched printers that offer various capabilities. For instance for the e governance sector we have automatic duplex printers that can print on both sides because saving paper is important. We are also pushing for large capacity printers here by promoting eco friendly causes called a ‘printer that saves lives’. For advanced homes we find our Wifi enabled printers very popular.
The latest range of our printers supports the latest technologies. We offer expanded wireless support. Our wireless capable PIXMA models now also support the latest IEEE 802.11n standard which allows photo printing from an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android devices etc. We have the Full HD Movie Print which allows users to print any frame of HD video footage captured on a Canon digital camera.
[Q] While you are talking of an increase in the number of pages being printed, there is an increased consciousness about being eco friendly. How do you reconcile to this?
[A] We are very conscious of our green responsibility. We always try to focus on how we can increase more images per pages. We focus on power efficiency of our printers, which is very high. Our cartridges are biodegradable. We pick all our component level materials from registered manufacturers who follow strict green policies. All our processes, office, the way we talk, we communicate, everything has a green thought.
90 per cent of laser printers and 80 per cent of inkjet printers support duplex printing. Canon is continuously promoting and pushing for duplex printing and for saving paper in the process. We have launched our Green Cycle Program in 16 cities across the country where Canon as well as non-Canon users can come and drop cartridges at the Green Cycle Counters.
We have a tie-up with a national agency which will collect these cartridges and take them to their local centre were the scrapping is done safely. The process is monitored to ensure that cartridges are scrapped properly. Similarly, used Canon printers can also be dropped off at three centres in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Expansion plans include covering all our Canon Image Square Stores and Canon Care Centers in 2011. Expansion cities include Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Cochin, Lucknow and Guwahati. Our target is to have a collection of 500 -1000 cartridges every month.