Canon hopes to capture half of printer market

Canon hopes to capture half of printer market

BANGKOK (JP): Canon will introduce four new premium "bubble
jet" printer products in Indonesia at the end of this month. Its
target is to control half of the printer market in the country
this year, according to Merry Harun, Canon division manager at PT
Datascrip, the distributor of Canon printers in Indonesia.

Merry said the four new models would help strengthen Canon's
position, particularly in the office sector, the most lucrative
part of the printer market.

"We are aiming to control around 50 percent of the (printer)
market this year," Merry told reporters during a press tour to
Thailand.

She said that according to Dataquest, Canon dominated 40
percent of the domestic printer market in 1999, selling around
80,000 inkjet printers.

The second position was held by Hewlett-Packard with less than
30 percent share, and third was Epson with nearly 25 percent
share.

Merry said that the bulk of the sales volume this year would
still come from Canon's cheaper super printer series called the
BJC265 SP and the BJC 2000 SP.

She said that the two products were especially designed for
household computer users particularly in crisis-hit economies
like Indonesia.

Canon's four new printer models include the BJC-85 mobile
printer, BJC-8200 ultra photographic printer, BJC-6500 A3
business printer, and the BJC 8500 A3 wide format printer.

The new mobile printer model has a 2-in-1 printer feature
which combines printing and scanning functions.

The portable model is also lighter, faster and allows wireless
printing: no need to connect with personal computer or notebook.

In Indonesia, the new product will be sold at Rp 1.9 million
(US$253) per unit.

The BJC-8200 printer is claimed to be the number one
photographic quality printer because it uses Canon's latest
microfine droplet technology for high resolution, low graininess,
multi-gradation and image stability.

Canon aims to sell the model to frequent individual users of
digital cameras, and business users such as design offices,
advertising production companies, architect offices, and printing
businesses.

The new product will be sold at Rp 3 million per unit in
Indonesia.

The BJC-6500 model provides excellent quality and the fastest
printing speed for documents up to A3 size.

The model is also claimed to be the most cost effective
because of its separate ink tanks system, allowing empty tanks of
a particular color to be replaced without changing tanks that
still have ink.

The model is to be launched at Rp 3.5 million each.

The BJC-8500 model is equipped with water resistant technology
and promises superior printing quality on plain paper. The
product will be sold at Rp 13 million each.

Merry said that Datascrip planned to boost Canon's after sales
service centers throughout Indonesia as part of the strategy to
maintain its leadership in the domestic printer market.

She said that now there were around 20 after sales service
centers.

Datascrip, a distributor of various office equipment was
established 31 years ago by local entrepreneur Joe Kamdani. It
started marketing Canon's printer products in 1980.

Merry declined to disclose the sales revenue of Datascrip last
year, but said that around half of it came from selling Canon's
printer products.

Meanwhile, Matt Ishii of Canon Singapore Pte. Ltd. said that
Canon would double its promotional budget this year to between
US$ 6 million and US$ 8 million amid tight competition in printer
markets worldwide.

He said that worldwide, Canon expected to sell around 1
million units of bubble jet printers per month this year. Last
year Cannon managed to sell around 7 million units, mostly to the
American and European markets.

Ishii said that Canon's Asia/Oceania sales were expected to
grow by more than 16 percent this year from around 1.96 million
units sold in 1999.

He said that sales in the crisis-hit Asian countries would
largely come from Canon's low-cost printer products.

Canon's low-cost printer products are manufactured by Canon
High-Tech Ltd. in Thailand where copiers and facsimile products
are also manufactured.

The Thailand unit, 100 percent owned by Japan's Canon Inc.,
started operation in 1992.

Canon High-Tech vice president Mikio Hasegawa said that the
company expected to produce some 7.42 million units of low-cost
bubble jet printers this year from around 7 million units last
year.

"The market for bubble jet printers is growing dramatically,"
he said. (rei)