HP eyes India for expanding printer sales

Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest computer and peripherals manufacturers, is eyeing the Indian market for expanding its printer sales.
HP, which has leadership position in the Indian hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market, sees potential for further growth as it launched a range of printers and scanners, priced between Rs 25,000-69,500 here.
The printers, which would be made available in India beginning October, will be able to detect malicious virus attacks.
Launching the new series of products, HP Asia Pacific Japan VP (Printing Systems) Leong Han Kong said these printers are based on 'jet intelligence' technology which increases the speed of printing while consuming less energy.

"India is a very very large and growing market for HP where there are still people who are buying their first printers. So, we see a lot of scope," Leong added.
The printers have in-built security features that can detect malware and modifications to the printers' firmware, which will help in detecting fraud.

"With anti-fraud technology built into every toner cartridge, customers have more protection that identifies counterfeit cartridges and helps control costs of printing in office as its misuse can be checked," Leong said.
Customers who bought HP Future smart printers post 2011 can also upgrade the products and have the new features.

The time of waiting for the printer to get active from 'sleep mode' and print the first page will also be less, at 9 seconds from 17 seconds in older models.
The company launched three enterprise-class Laser Jet printers -- HP Laser Jet Enterprise M506, which will be available from October 1, MFP M527 and MFP M577, both of which would be available from November 1.
Besides, it launched four printers for small and medium-sized businesses. These printers would be launched in India between October and November and would be priced between Rs 25,145-Rs 69,498.
The two new HP scanners would simplify digitisation for greater productivity. The scanners would be available in India from October.

Globally, HP has over 40 per cent share of the hardcopy peripherals market, followed by players like Canon, Epson and Samsung.
While the latest data for India was not available, in Q1 of 2014, HP had a share of 48.3 per cent of the HCP market in India, followed by Canon (16.4 per cent), Epson (10.5 per cent), Ricoh (5.7 per cent) and Samsung (5.3 per cent).