Brother Industries Limited's claim to fame in the printer industry goes back to 1971 when it introduced the industry's first ever high-speed dot matrix printer. The product, called the M101, marked a major diversification for Brother, which up to that point was largely a manufacturer of sewing machines and portable typewriters. Since the launch of the M101, the Nagoya, Japan-based Brother has quietly established itself as one of the leading players in the printer industry.

With a 2009 worldwide market share of around 6 percent, Brother doesn't have quite the commanding market presence that companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Canon have in the printer market. However, over the years, Brother has managed to establish a respectable niche for itself as a vendor of solid, reliable printers for budget-conscious buyers. Brother, which turned 100 in 2008, today employs over 22,000 people and has a presence in dozens of countries.

Brother's entry into the printer business actually started in 1970 when it became a supplier of printer mechanisms for Centronics, a division of Massachusetts, U.S.-based Wang Laboratories. Less than a year after it started working with Centronics, Brother started manufacturing and selling its own line of branded printers. In 2009, nearly 77 percent of the company's global revenues of £ 3.9 billion came from its Printing and Solutions group with Europe accounting for almost 35 percent of its overall business.

Though much of Brother's market success has resulted from its focus on affordability, the company has not been a laggard on the innovation front. Besides introducing the world's first high-speed dot matrix printer, Brother was the first to introduce a printer for mobile devices with its m-Print model in 2004. It was also the first one out with a compact A3 inkjet multifunction printer with its MFC-6490CW model.

The company's printer portfolio today includes a wide range of mono and colour laser printers as well as a bevy of inkjet and all-in-one printers for home, home-office and commercial use.