Canon, the well known digital imaging and printing company, announced the launch of its first ultralight portable scanner, imageFormula P-201 on Wednesday (October 16).
This is a portable scanner which can be used for documents of 2 inch to 8.5 inch length and is accompanied by a Capture OnTouch mobile application. The scanner has a USB port that can be used to power it up. There is an optional Wi-Fi unit too that can be paired with the scanner. This wireless unit comes with a built-in battery, allowing the scanner to power-up in locations without any power source. In addition, the Wi-Fi connection allows scanning operations without a PC, using just a smartphone or a tablet.
Canon expects to do business of around Rs 100 crore in scanners in 2014. It is targeting 15 million households. It hopes to sell 12,500 of the newly launched portable scanners in 2014, accounting for Rs 15 crore.
Around 150 billion documents are printed annually in India, says Canon, while about 75 billion are scanned.
Alok Bharadwaj, executive vice president, Canon India, says: "India is probably world's largest analogue country where most of the important and critical information lies in files at homes and offices".
The Canon imageFormula P-201 will retail for Rs 11,995 and the WiFi unit is priced at an additional Rs 14,000. While Canon is betting big time on this portable scanner, its competitor HP had introduced one last year. Portronics, is yet another name in portable scanning space offering portable scanners for less than half the price of the P-201. Portronics Scanny 3 even comes with Bluetooth that is capable of transferring the scanned images to any device over Bluetooth connectivity.
(Left to right): Canon India Executive Vice President Alok Bharadwaj, President & CEO Kazutada Kobayashi and Canon India Senior Director (Office Imaging Solution) K Bhaskhar unveil the ultralight portable scanner in New Delhi.
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