India : Epson Says Inkjet Printers Will be the Next New Wave

[Anonymous]

<p><font size=”5″><strong>Epson Says Inkjet Printers Will be the Next New Wave</strong></font></p>
<p><font size=”4″><strong>Samba Moorthy, Director – Sales & Marketing, Epson India talks about why the company wants to focus on inkjet printers.</strong></font></p>
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<div style=”float:left; margin-right:20px;”><font size=”4″><img alt=”Samba Moorthy” src=”http://www.channelworld.in/sites/default/files/channel-interview/01/2013/Samba-New_140x140.jpg&#8221; /></font></div>
<div style=”float:left;width:400px;”><font size=”4″><span class=”persona”><strong>Samba Moorthy, </strong> Director – Sales & Marketing, Epson India</span> </font><span class=”mark quote”><font size=”4″>We have products in the inkjet category that can effectively address business requirements that are currently being done only by laser printers.</font><br />
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</span>Interview Questions</div>
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<ul class=”questions”>
<li><font size=”4″><strong><br />
Q.</strong> <span><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#answer1″>The recent Gartner report on Indian Printer market puts you in No:3 position. But a closer look tells us that there is indeed a significant gap between the market shares of Epson and the other two leading players. Do you think you have some catching up to do here?</a></span></font></li>
<li><font size=”4″><strong>Q.</strong> <span><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#answer2″>But the laser printer segment share is quite substantial if you look at the overall printer market. </a></span></font></li>
<li><font size=”4″><strong>Q.</strong> <span><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#answer3″>But why do you want to focus on an area that is currently growing at a slower pace?</a></span></font></li>
<li><font size=”4″><strong>Q.</strong> <span><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#answer4″>Government is a large user of your printer product ranges, especially dot matrix. Are they receptive to inkjet?</a></span></font></li>
<li><font size=”4″><strong>Q.</strong> <span><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#answer5″>Why is MPS not a strong focus area for Epson in India, especially at a time when businesses are looking at opex models? </a></span></font></li>
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<h3><font size=”4″>Full Interview with Samba Moorthy </font></h3>
<div id=”answer1″ class=”answer-block”>
<div class=”question”><font size=”4″><span class=”text-cw”>CW</span> <strong><span class=”mark”>:</span> The recent Gartner report on Indian Printer market puts you in No:3 position. But a closer look tells us that there is indeed a significant gap between the market shares of Epson and the other two leading players. Do you think you have some catching up to do here?</strong></font></div>
<p><font size=”4″><strong class=”name”>Moorthy:</strong> Definitely. I think there is no two ways about it. But I would also like to put forth the fact that the Gartner report is a consolidated picture of all printer categories put together. So if we have to filter that by the three technologies that we have been talking about, we are clearly the market leader in the dot matrix segment with over 53 percent market share. In the inkjet segment, we are No: 2 in the market with 26 percent share in terms of volume and 32 percent in terms of revenue. So, laser printers are the only area where we lag behind. But our focus is actually towards redefining the business printing needs with the inkjet technology.</font></p>
<div class=”got-to”><font size=”4″><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#questions”>Go to Questions</a></font></div>
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<div id=”answer2″ class=”answer-block”>
<div class=”question”><font size=”4″><span class=”text-cw”>CW</span> <strong><span class=”mark”>:</span> But the laser printer segment share is quite substantial if you look at the overall printer market. </strong></font></div>
<p><font size=”4″><strong class=”name”>Moorthy:</strong> We do agree that today a large number of customers still prefer the laser printers. But the fact is that inkjet printers started to grow in the last two years, especially among business users. It is going to grow further in the times to come. Though the inkjet market saw a decline in volume, we as a brand have grown in this segment. Besides, if you look at the overall revenue of Inkjet printer market, I don’t think there was a decline. The customers that we have spoken to are extremely open to this technology.</font></p>
<div class=”got-to”><font size=”4″><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#questions”>Go to Questions</a></font></div>
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<div id=”answer3″ class=”answer-block”>
<div class=”question”><font size=”4″><span class=”text-cw”>CW</span> <strong><span class=”mark”>:</span> But why do you want to focus on an area that is currently growing at a slower pace?</strong></font></div>
<p><font size=”4″><strong class=”name”>Moorthy:</strong> In the past, inkjet did not probably have the capability to address many functional requirements of businesses. But today, Epson has redefined this market space because we believe that an inkjet printer can deliver much more than a laser printer, in terms of efficiencies and cost saving. The power consumption, for example, is just about 70 percent that of a laser. Inkjet is more versatile when it comes to meeting functional requirements as well. The cost per print is much lower and the customer can get significant cost savings as compared to a laser, without compromising on any functionalities at a much lower price.</font></p>
<p><font size=”4″>We have innovated and delivered products in the inkjet category that can effectively address business requirements that are currently being done only by laser printers. So we are clearly going to direct our efforts towards this area. The transformation from laser to inkjet is something Epson would be driving.</font></p>
<div class=”got-to”><font size=”4″><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#questions”>Go to Questions</a></font></div>
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<div id=”answer4″ class=”answer-block”>
<div class=”question”><font size=”4″><span class=”text-cw”>CW</span> <strong><span class=”mark”>:</span> Government is a large user of your printer product ranges, especially dot matrix. Are they receptive to inkjet?</strong></font></div>
<p><font size=”4″><strong class=”name”>Moorthy:</strong> That is the challenge we are working on. Today, whether it’s a government or a corporate customer, we are working hard to get the education levels improved and the information flow being kept at a larger perspective. I think customers are eventually looking at a solution from a functionality and cost point of view; and not from technology. I think within a year or two, a large set of customers across verticals will be experiencing and endorsing our inkjet products.</font></p>
<div class=”got-to”><font size=”4″><a href=”http://www.channelworld.in/interviews/epson-says-inkjet-printers-will-be-next-new-wave#questions”>Go to Questions</a></font></div>
</div>
<div class=”question”><font size=”4″><span class=”text-cw”>CW</span> <strong><span class=”mark”>:</span> Why is MPS not a strong focus area for Epson in India, especially at a time when businesses are looking at opex models? </strong></font></div>
<p><font size=”4″><strong class=”name”>Moorthy:</strong> Some of the customers definitely feel a significant benefit from MPS. But, when we are able to deliver a product with lower initial investment and operational cost, we don’t think there is a need for a model like MPS in the first place. This question would have been relevant about two years ago. But with the entry of affordable business inkjet printers that ensure very low running cost, the scenario has definitely changed. Inkjet has been able to deliver the capex and opex expectations of most of the organization. However, if a customer still prefers the MPS model, we have specialized partners who can offer it. But MPS is something we are currently not promoting in a big way.</font></p>

[Author]

January 17, 2013 at 8:06 AM