Dot-Matrix Printers

There is a school of thought that believes that the DMP is dead, that no one buys DMPs. This year’s Users’ Choice awards’ survey tried to check this out. 74% of the respondents (enterprises with an IT spend of Rs 25 lakh or above) use DMPs and 26% plan to buy more in the immediate future. Obviously, there is a lot of life still left here.

So where does the DMP find usage? Mostly in large volume back office operations and in multipart printing requirements, like billing. Plus there still are a fair number of offices, including government, where the DMP is the default printer. And finally the B and C city markets are still large playgrounds for

DMPs.

This year, like last, the award in this category has gone to Epson. WeP, which had been at number three last year with a UPI of only 24% has climbed to second position with a UPI of 59% this year.

It beat TVSE (the winner in this category in 1998 and 1999, and the runner-up in 2000) to get to this position. The brands that followed TVSE are Lipi and Panasonic. But there is a very big gap between the top three and these two.

In current usage, Epson is number one, followed by TVSE and then WeP.

Epson emerged strong in the West, its traditional stronghold, and in the North, with the maximum demand coming from companies with an IT spend of over Rs 50 lakh and under Rs one crore. In terms of verticals, it got a push from services and

BPO.

Almost half of those who voted for Epson gave good quality as their prime reason, while over a quarter said that they had used and were satisfied with the performance of Epson

DMP.

The big story this year is the major leap that WeP has taken. So, what did WeP do right? WeP has made its mark in companies with an IT spend of between Rs 25 to Rs 50 lakh. A quarter of those who voted said they chose WeP because they had tried out the product and were satisfied with it. A large percentage also said that it is a good-quality product. The reasons for voting for TVSE were also the same.