Japan's Toshiba targets 15% share of Indian printer market

Japanese technology major Toshiba on Friday said it aims to more than double its share to 15% in the multi-function printer (MFP) market in India as it expands its product portfolio in the country.

The company, which currently has a 6% share, on Friday unveiled two new multi-function printers (MFPs) that allows both A3 and A4 printing, priced Rs 35,000 onwards.

"We used to be No. 1 in the Indian market till 2008 but after that we lost share. In the last two years, we have revamped our strategy and studied deeper into customers' requirements. While the Indian customer is price conscious, he is also value conscious and what is important is also the total cost of ownership," Toshiba TEC Corporation Chief Marketing Executive Isao Sugehara told PTI.

With the new printers and the line up that Toshiba plans ahead, the company aims to take its share to 15% from the current six% by 2017-end, he added.

"Our printer has a compact A4 size, but enables A3 size output print by using built-in stack feed bypass and also enables A3 size paper scanning with its built-in Reversing Automatic Document Feeder (RADF). We expect SMEs to be a major segment for these printers," he said.

Sugehara said the Indian A3 printer market size in the country is about 1.2 lakh units, while that of A4 is 3-5 times that size.

"Often, companies are forced to buy A3 printers even though the requirement is small. This is a problem that we want to solve," he said.