More affordable and versatile
We spoke to Gautam Paul, Assistant Director, CSP Group, Canon India on the printer business and some initiatives in the country.
All-purpose printers are a booming market, and consumers are spoiled with the number of choices available, so how your printer solutions have an edge on other?
Canon has a vast range of all-purpose printers catering to the printing requirements of home segment, SOHOs as well as dedicated offices. The PIXMA range of printers which are customized for the needs of the users offer unmatched print quality and are equipped with user-friendly features like PIXMA Printing Solutions, which makes wireless printing and scanning through mobile devices easier. Apart from being affordable, the printers provide users with various other features like PIXMA Cloud Link, which solves one’s printing woes by enabling them to access their files directly from a variety of photo sharing, social networking and storage sites.
What are the latest series of printers you released by targeting this segment?
We have PIXMA E480, an economical office all-in-one printer that allows low-cost printing of up to 400 pages with the high-capacity ink cartridges. This ultra-compact printer also comes with integrated auto document feeder and wireless printing.
We have also launched the new affordable PIXMA MG2570S & PIXMA iP2870S printers targeting users who are relatively new to printing or look for affordable high quality printing solutions. With the new range of printers, we have also launched affordable cartridges starting at Rs. 499/-. The cartridges are- Black PG745S and Color CL746S. The printers are Compact and lightweight which allows them to easily fit into even the smaller spaces and shelves at home. Auto Power ON mode can detect a print command and will automatically switch the printer ON with a USB connection.
How are your printers best for students who want more versatile printing solution?
Technology has become a boon for students and helps them in many ways to manage their curricular requirements. Canon has designed its products keeping in mind the requirements of this segment. The E series printers not only boast of ink efficient cartridges which give more yield but these all-in-one printers also make high quality printing, scanning and copying easier for students.
They can also print-on- the- go using various apps like PIXMA Printing Solutions and PIXMA Cloud Link, which supports Scan to Email and allows them to access their files directly from a variety of digital platforms. Cloud Printing app will enable them to print photos and documents from Google The printers have also been designed with features like My Image Garden and Creative Park. My Image Garden offers comprehensive image organization by calendar, event, and people views and it also provides creative printing opportunity. Creative Park is a playful website full of print material that has been optimised for Canon’s PIXMA printers. These features will give a boost to the creativity of the young minds and help them excel in their academic performances.
How will your printers give SOHOs a competitive edge?
Features like Wifi and smart device connectivity, high quality printing surely stands apart from the competitors in providing best in class experience to consumers. PIXMA printers have been specially designed for SOHOs and consumers addressing their diverse printing requirements.
Keeping in mind the needs of the SOHOs, a number of PIXMA printers allow users to enjoy easy and efficient print mobility by using PIXMA Printing Solutions to print photos, webpages, from smart devices and using PIXMA Cloud Link to access their files directly from a variety of photo sharing.
Home users are very concerned about cost and servicing part, how is Canon addressing that?
The demand for cost effective printers has started to increase in home segments, where users avoid running to nearby cyber cafes to get print outs. Therefore, we have launched our new affordable printers- MG2570S & iP2870S keeping in mind the needs of the home segment.
Service has always been our focus area and we have always tried to provide customers with products which will live upto their expectations. Canon has 41 printer care centres which will address all the print related queries of customers and they can also rectify any problem they face with the products. Customers can also get a live demo of the products at the Canon Image Square (CIS) centres which are spread across India. We have also extended upto 2 years onsite warranty on most of our products.
What are your fresh approach for tier I and tier II markets?
We plan to reach out to Tier I & Tier II markets through sustained marketing campaign, easy upgrade offers and add-on solutions. In addition we are working very closely with channel partners and Value Added Resellers (VARs) in all major cities to bring our printers and related services to SOHO .