Bangalore, June 16, 21014: Japan -headquartered leader in home and office peripherals - Brother International - has ploughed back a lot of learnings after a year of sharply addressing the home and small business market in India. The latest printer offerings unveiled last week at product launch here, incorporate quite a few India-specific improvements.
The latest offering comprises two 3-in-1 inkjet Multi-Function Centres, DCP-J100 InkBenefit and DCP-J105 InkBenefit and a a monochrome laser multi function printer.
In response to Indian expectations of 'paisa vasool' or value-for-money consumables, the new inkjets take affordable 2,400 page-yield cartridges which cost Rs.530 only.
To such entry level inkjets, Brother offers a feature normally available only with higher priced models: separate cartridges for each of the three colours.
When the colour feature is not used for long spells -- again a very Indian usage model -- cartridges tend to corrode the print head. Brother has laminated the head with stainless steel to prevent this, explained their India Managing Director Yoshiji Matsui in a special briefing for IndiaTechOnline.
Both Brother and Epson use Piezo technology for their ink delivery ( unlike the altertaive bubble jet technology). This ensures a lower temperature operation, reducing print head wear-out in hot and humid geographies like India.
The two inkjets are identical except that the J105 offers a wireless and mobile printing option through a home or office WiFi LAN. It costs Rs 10,990 while the J100 costs Rs 9500. Replacement colour cartridges are Rs 425 for each colour; while the black cartridge costs Rs 530.
High volume monochrome laser MF printer
Brother has also added to its range of Monochrome Laser Multi-Functional Centres (MFCs) for Small Offices and Home Offices (SOHOs) and Small Medium Businesses (SMBs).
The DCP-1514 offers monochrome printing and copying with colour Scanning and high print speeds of up to 20 pages per minute. 1500-page toner cartridge costs much less than competing makes because Brother has removed the drum from the replacement toner cartridge so that it needs to be replaced only after five toner replacements.
Mr Matsui explained an additional useful feature for small offices -- the ability to print both sides of an ID card on the same side of a sheet of paper. " Our engineers have also improved the print quality of the photo in the ID by taking into account Indian skin tones which have wide variation", Matsui explained. In the deep sleep mode the printer consumes less than 2 watts.
Added Brother's India General Manager Alok Nigam: “We understand the changing needs of the customers at work. With the launch of the new model we have delivered an affordable Multifunction centre which is can be used for high volume printing. We are confident that Brother can deliver more value and meet diverse office needs by the strong range of products.”
The DCP-1514 costs Rs 10,990, with a one year warranty.