R. Savitha

Recently in Shanghai

WITH a target of Rs 700 crore revenue by 2007, Canon India had started its second phase of growth, officially kicked off by Mr Yoroku Adachi, President of Canon Asia, in Goa in 2003.

The idea was to grow by three times in the next five years and have a market share of 30 per cent in the Indian digital imaging industry by 2005.

This is not all, it wants to be the No.1 in all its fields of operations, be it cameras, printers or consumer products. So how does the company plan to achieve this? Seven digital cameras, three digital camcorders, two fax machines, two inkjet printers, two all-in-ones (print, scan and copy), two projectors and one personal copier are scheduled to hit the Indian market by April end this year.

The roll-out would begin in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore followed by Chennai, Jaipur, Lucknow and Chandigarh.

For the discerning domestic customers, the company has developed the `concept product' called i80, a mobile printer that can be connected to a camera phone, digital camera, personal computer or a laptop. If none of this is available, prints can be taken out using blue tooth technology.

This is a productfor the `man on the move' who wants immediate prints, may be at locations such as the airport and hotels.

The mobile printer, priced at Rs 20,000, would weigh 1.2 kg. This has a battery backup. It can print 100 sheets of paper or 20 photos with this backup.

About 10 per cent of the mobile phones are also going the camera phone way with players such as Siemens, Nokia, Samsung, BenQ and Motorola seeing a good growth.

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