New Delhi: HP today underscored its commitment for growth in India through a series of new initiatives designed to deliver seamless, secure, context-aware print experiences in a connected India. Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice-President, HP Imaging and Printing Group, speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, signalled the increased focus on this important market and shared the company’s new vision and strategy to leverage the 120 billion pages opportunity1 in India in the next three years.

Underpinning India’s importance as an important market and its growing significance while driving innovation at HP IPG, Joshi said, “Our business is accelerating with India as a key growth engine. We are more committed than ever to growing our business in India. India’s printing industry is transforming and we are driving it from the front with our innovation. I am proud to say that some of the critical innovation around web-connected and cloud printing are being done by our engineers in India.”

India a key engine for growth

As part of its three-year growth strategy, the company is strengthening its geo-expansion programs to optimize India’s rapidly growing and young consumer opportunities in non-metro and upcountry markets. The other key growth driver for IPG in India is the education sector, which will be a key focus for investment, especially to create synergies that build greater relevance for printing through content providers that drive the need to print more. India’s emergence as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with one of the youngest consumer demographics, lies at the heart of this new focus on education, he said.

Joshi, who is in India this week meeting customers, partners, employees and government officials across Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi, said India’s printing industry is being redefined for business transformation by many significant trends like content explosion, mobility and web-driven new usage models, a movement from analog to digital, and service-driven business models.

India driving next generation of innovation around web-connected and cloud printing

The company’s India R&D hub for imaging and printing is leading critical innovation around web connected and cloud printing. The team has made significant contributions to the web-connected printer program, including key innovation such as the development of email printing capability (ePrint), bringing that to the market in July 2010. Since July 2010, the R&D team has worked on enabling a PrintApp ecosystem and ePrint on most of HP’s printer lines.

The team has also been involved in developing the first version of IPG’s web platform and the first set of applications for low-end consumer printers allowing users to undertake paper-triggered web tasks.

“Innovation at HP is today allowing consumers to leverage the Web and ecommerce applications to simplify transactional activities, increase productivity and enriching lifestyles,” said Vyomesh Joshi.

Other key announcements

HP underlined its commitment to grow its business in India with a number of other announcements recently. In March, the company said one of HP’s key priorities will be to deliver unique and innovative market-specific solutions to customers in key markets like India.

In line with this strategy, the company announced in mid-June that Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, would lead all cross-business initiatives focused on expanding HP’s market share in India. This announcement was preceded by Neeraj Sharma’s appointment as Vice-President of HP IPG India earlier this year to lead growth for HP IPG in India.

Leading in India

According to IDC, HP is the market leader across Laser and Inkjet printers in India in terms of unit shipments. HP is also the largest player and an end-to-end solution provider in the graphic arts and signage printing industry. The company has also pioneered the service based business model – Managed Enterprise Services – which is expected to lead the change in the way printing is perceived by businesses.