Dell challenges printer giants in Japan

Dell has taken on printer giants Canon and Epson on their own turf by offering cut-price printers in Japan.

The company has around 11 per cent of the PC market in Japan. It will be offering a multifunction inkjet printer and a monochrome laser printer for prices about 30 per cent lower than its rivals.

Dell isn't giving away any of its targets for sales and is not saying if it has any plans to move into the consumables market in Japan. This is a highly profitable part of the market for Japanese printer makers and their retailers. Analysts suggest that a price war in consumables would severely dent profits for the Japanese companies.

It took Dell almost 20 years to get its 11 per cent of the PC market in Japan. But in just one year of selling printers in the US, it has taken a 17 per cent share of the multifunction inkjet printer market.