Setting sights

Calcutta, March 27: In a bid to increase its business in the country, Canon India has lined up a range of products to be launched during the year.

After growing in the digital camera segment, the company will now focus on digital camcorders.

Alok Bharadwaj, vice-president, Canon India, said, ?We have already established ourselves in the digicam market. We will now focus on the digital camcorder segment, which is a relatively untapped market, except for the presence of Sony and Panasonic.?

The company will start commercially promoting six digital camcorders from April 15. The DV camcorder market in India is estimated at Rs 100 crore. ?With prices starting at Rs 28,000, the DV camcorder is an expensive product,? said Bharadwaj. ?However, we expect a growth similar to the digicam segment.?

The digicam market in India was Rs 100 crore in 2004 and is expected to double this year. By 2007, it is expected to grow to Rs 600 crore. Canon expects Rs 35 crore revenue from digicams this year, up from Rs 10 crore it had earned in 2004. The company is targeting Rs 180 crore by 2007. The fall in prices will lead to a growth in the market, he added.

?Digicam prices have already fallen by 10 per cent in the first three months of this year. It is expected to fall by another 20 per cent during the course of the year,? he said.

Digicams are now available for as low as Rs 7,000 and prices are expected to touch the Rs 5000-mark by the beginning of next year.

Camcorder and digicam businesses will help Canon grow the home photo printer segment. The company plans to launch products in this segment during the year.