Interview: Andrew Koh From Canon India DSLR Biz Tells US How 2013 Was For The Company And Next Big DSLR Breakthrough

Recently, we had a word with Mr Andrew Koh, Senior Director, Image Communication Products Group, Canon India and he revealed that people in India are maturing to the DSLR revolution and want the best bang for their buck. We threw some doozies at him and this is what he told us.
· How was the year 2013 for Canon India? Anything you would like to emphasise on?

The year 2013 has been a year with lots happening in the industry, nature of business and the market. On one hand, the demand for DSLRs grew, and progressed sharply upwards as the year wore on. We saw good growth of our DSLRs cameras and recorded an overall growth of 30% in 2013 in this category.

In 2013, we launched a very interesting concept called “Double Zoom Kit”, wherein a DSLR along with 2 lenses was packed in a single box. This was the first time such a combo kit has been tried in India. We chose our bestselling EOS 600D and EOS 1100D as the DSLRs that were kitted with two lenses. The two lenses bundled were the 18-55mm standard kit lens and the telephoto 55-250mm lens, giving consumers a focal range of 18mm to 250mm to play with. This Double Zoom kit has been a resounding success with a huge number of consumers opting for it.

Apart from the 12 new models that included 8 Wi-Fi enabled digital compact cameras, 2 DSRLs and 2 Cinema range camera introduced in 2013, Canon also launched the Canon EOS Academy to enhance photography culture in India. Under this academy, we are conducting free and paid workshops; and seminars on various aspects of Photography. These workshops are conducted by a panel of Photography experts and we plan to conduct more than 100 workshops in 2014.

On the whole, the camera business has evolved as the major growth pillar of the company and the DSLR being the key driver.

· What according to you will be the breakthrough technology in 2014 as far as DSLR cameras are concerned?

Technology is something that is evolving on daily basis. New camera technology is making it an exciting time for amateurs as well as professional photographers. At Canon we’re firm believers in breaking new technology to the market. And this is a philosophy that we bring to our products as well.

Considering the growing interest and demand for DSLR’s, Canon plans to expand its DSLR business in 2014 by introducing and promoting ground-breaking technologies in DSLR camera range.

We’ve seen an example of this live view focusing technology with Dual Pixel CMOS AF on the EOS 70D. It would be no surprise to see products featuring similar or even improved version of such technologies in coming times. Besides this, improvements in high ISO performance, as well as improvements in cameras as well as lenses in terms of performance and usability are continuous pursuits of our design and engineering teams, and future products would surely see improvements on these lines.



· What is new we can expect from Canon in the coming year? When can we expect the CES 2014 launches of Canon to come to India?

You can expect some of the models announced at CES 2014 to be launched in the Indian market within quarter 1 of this year.

· What is the trend in India? Are people buying more DSLR’s now as their first camera or do they still want a P&S first?

India is a very diverse market. People from different reasons have exhibit very diverse consumer behaviour as well as shopping patterns. Cameras are no exception to this, and we see different buying patterns across regions.

According to a study "India Camera Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2017" - by Research and Markets - the digital camera market will witness phenomenal rise, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27 per cent for next five years. And monitoring the trend, DSLR cameras which were earlier used largely by professionals have been witnessing an increasing demand from amateur and budding photographers. This is largely because of growing knowledge, interest and increase in spending power of India customers.

Education and high-disposable income are the main factors stimulating sales of DSLRs in Tier 1 cities. All the more, the growing culture of photography has enthused customers to find out benefits of a DSLR camera which is another factor for increasing demand of this product category. We also see more and more people skipping the entry-level compact cameras in lieu of our SX series mainly on account of the zoom range and improved features on offer. But if we move down to Tier-III cities, still the demand of entry level point and shoot is there because of the overall household income and need for good quality images .

Therefore, at various levels, households across India are upgrading the device they use to create photos. At Canon, we are committed to promote the culture of photography and delighted to see how changing trends have interested customers to experiment with their photography skills using a DSLR or a high-end compact camera.