Konica Minolta India used the Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair 2026 at Jio World Convention Centre to underline a strategic shift in the country’s photo printing market, moving beyond traditional photo albums towards higher-value, application-driven print solutions, according to Manish Gupta, head PLM and planning, Konica Minolta India.
Konica Minolta has been associated with the CEIF since its early days in India, a journey that has closely tracked the company’s own growth in the domestic photo imaging segment. “Ever since we started in India, we have been part of this photo fair journey,” Gupta said, adding that the platform played a key role in establishing Konica Minolta’s presence in the Indian photo industry. “We started our photo journey with the photo fair in India, and this has given us a lot of mileage.”
Gupta said the fair continues to attract a wide cross-section of customers keen to explore new solutions. “We see a lot of customers coming in, looking at solutions from the photo industry,” he said, noting that the event remains relevant despite rapid changes in imaging technologies.
This year, Konica Minolta’s focus extended well beyond conventional photo album printing. “We are not looking only at the photo album as an application traditionally, which people have been doing,” Gupta said. “We are looking at beyond photo albums—what else people can do that is associated with the same trade.”
A key area of emphasis is embellishment, which Gupta described as a way for print service providers to enhance margins and reposition their offerings. “We are focusing slightly more on the embellishment part, because the same products that the customers sell, they can sell at a higher value,” he said. According to him, embellishment also changes how end customers perceive print service providers. “It gives a new paradigm towards how people perceive our customers and what type of services they can provide.”
Konica Minolta’s long-standing partnership with MGI in finishing and embellishment technologies was also highlighted at the fair. Gupta said several photo industry customers in India are already benefiting from these solutions. “We have a couple of customers in the photo industry who are using MGI for embellishment jobs, and they are very successful,” he said. “A lot of people get their jobs done through them as well, so it’s a very healthy relationship.”
The company used the fair as a live marketplace to connect buyers and sellers through real-world applications rather than just machine displays. “We are showing a lot of applications here which customers can see,” Gupta said. “The idea is to open up their mind, so once they see the application, they can visualize what else they can do using these devices.”
He noted that many printers tend to remain confined to a single application unless exposed to new possibilities. “Traditionally, people get used to one particular application,” he said. “Unless they have the opportunity to go out and explore, they don’t think beyond that. We try to bring as many applications as possible for them to visualize and replicate in their production environment.”
Alongside Konica Minolta’s own demonstrations, customer-produced samples were also showcased. “We have a couple of samples from customers, and we have also created some from our side,” Gupta said. “It gives them an idea of what all they can do by using Konica Minolta technology.”
On the broader outlook, Gupta remained cautiously optimistic about the Indian photo industry’s growth trajectory. “For us, the photo industry is still growing,” he said. While acknowledging uncertainty about how long the trend will continue, he pointed to structural factors supporting demand. “Unlike developed countries, India is still growing. The population is still growing, and there is still a lot of demand.”
Although mobile photography has surged, Gupta said print volumes in India continue to rise. “In developed countries, print size is declining. Here it is still growing,” he said. “That’s the positive side.”
Machines on display
Konica Minolta also used the CEIF platform to showcase a range of production presses and embellishment solutions aligned with its value-added print strategy. On display were the AccurioPress C74hc and AccurioPress C84hc, both featuring high-chroma toner technology aimed at delivering wider color gamut and enhanced image reproduction for photo applications. The AccurioPress C7100 was presented as a high-speed production workhorse for commercial and photo printers looking for productivity and consistency at scale. In finishing and embellishment, Konica Minolta highlighted the AccurioShine 3600 equipped with the iFoil One attachment.
