Canon launches 15 digital photo products

BANGALORE: Launching 15 digital photography products, Canon on Wednesday entered the fast growing digital photography market in India and said it had aggressive plans to capture 20 per cent of the digital camera market in the next 18 months.
Indian digital photography market is growing at over 77 per cent a year and is expected to increase from 30,000 units in 2001-2002 to 54,000 units by the end of the current fiscal, Alok Bharadwaj, director and general manager, consumer imaging and information division (CIID), Canon India, told reporters.
Canon India targeted a growth of 35 per cent to reach a turnover of Rs 500 crore by the end of 2005 and the CIID division was likely to clock revenues to the tune of Rs 90 crore by the end of the next financial year, he said.
The newly launched digital photography products include eight digital cameras, four video camcorders and three camera direct printers, priced in the range of Rs 15,000 to Rs one lakh in the consumer series and Rs one lakh to 5.38 lakh for the professional range.
The products, he said, would be marketed across the country by Canon''s IT channel partners and would be available with immediate effect in 26 cities.
Speaking about the Indian camera market, he said the total size in 2002 was expected to be three million pieces, amounting to Rs 600 crore, of which the digital cameras would be 54,050 units valued at Rs 132 crore.
To a query, he said the present duty level was 62 per cent and once it is brought down significantly, digital cameras would become cheaper.