Sharp joins the race in printers

Eager

to be recognized as a `serious IT player', Sharp Business Systems (India) Ltd

has launched a range of printers targeted at the corporate sector. Considering

that the crowded printer market has been focusing more on the home and SME

segment, it is a little surprising that Sharp chose the high-end segment to make

its printer debut into the county. But the company has lined up a well-planned

strategy to create an impact on the market.

Said

Pankaj Sharma, Head (Sales and Channels), Sharp India, "It has been a

deliberate attempt to position our products at the corporate sector since the

initial target is to create an image. Once the brand is established in the

corporate sector, the home segment will be easier to tackle." There are two

reasons for his logic. One is that it would have a snowball effect in that it is

the same people in the corporate sector that would want the printers at home and

second, it would have already built a credibility base in the corporate sector.

So,

are the leading players in the segment like HP worried about the new entrant?

"No", said, Princy Bhatnagar, Market Development Manager (Deskjets and

Scanjets), HP India Ltd. "It is such a dynamic market that rather than

eating into our marketshare, we are going to see Sharp creating its own

marketspace. Being a technologically competent company, there is no reason why

it should not be able to establish itself as a player if it is prepared to

invest in building the market." Being one of the biggest players in this

segment, HP claims to have 90 percent marketshare in the high-end printers

segment. It is also a segment where established names like Epson and Canon have

been struggling to make a mark. Therefore it is an open ended question whether

Sharp would be able to establish itself in this end of the spectrum.

Sharp

has entered the inkjet printers market in the Rs 10,000 plus range. It has

launched four printers to begin with--AJ 1800, AJ 2000, AJ 2100 and AJ 6010 with

the 6010 being at the highest end of the price-line. While the first three are

stand alone products, the last is a multi-functional product with a printer,

scanner and copier built into the same product. All the products are network

compatible with the AJ 2100 providing photo-finish printing quality. All the

products are in the 6 to 12 PPM range depending on whether the printing is in

color or in black and white.

Meanwhile,

Sharp has already launched a digital printer priced at around Rs 45,000--FO

2950--that has six functions built-in--phone, fax, copier, printer, scanner and

e-mail. Its printers are a result of technical collaboration with Fujitsu and

Xerox with the software being developed by Sharp itself.

What

Sharp is going to push as its USP are additional features on the printers. For

instance, in addition to the 150 sheet tray, the printers also have a bypass

tray which can load different kinds of paper. The printers also have four

individual ink tanks--cyan, magenta, yellow and black allowing users to replace

only that color which has exhausted resulting in cost savings to the user.

Another USP being deployed by Sharp is to offer a three year onsite warranty to

corporate users on all the three products except the AJ 6010. This would be

complemented by its strategy to establish its servicing presence in the country

through its channels.

Sharp

has been banking on its long association with its channels to make a difference

in its race. With a network of 100 distributors and a total channel network of

over 250 partners, Sharma feels its reach together with an emphasis on service

will go a long way in establishing the company's presence.

For

its initiative in the printers segment, Sharp has doled out attractive incentive

for its channels: selling 50 printers in five months would entail a trip to

Paris and selling 30 printers in five months would entail a trip to Mauritius.

What's more, the company is launching an aggressive media campaign to announce

its entry into the printer segment. After having launched the product at

Bangalore IT.Com during the first week of November, Sharp is also participate in

the ongoing IT Asia show in Mumbai to provide visibility to its products. This

will be supported by a media campaign in both mainstream and technology

publications. This is in line with Sharp's overall strategy to first make its

presence felt in the market before making any projections about its sales

figures. In fact, Sharma, does not expect impressive sales figure until the next

fiscal which is 2001-2202.

By

early next year, Sharp also expects to launch an array of products from low-end

entry level printers to high-end LCD monitors by which time, the company also

expects to establish itself as a serious IT player.

(CNS)