Canon claims it is the overall brand leader in the color copier/printer market in the USA. It has also indicated that it plans to become the market leader for digital printing in the commercial printing and graphic arts markets. Earlier this year in the UK a company spokesman stated it planned to knock Xerox off the top spot and invest over $500 million in R&D on new machines. To move in this direction it has announced the launch of a new digital color printing technology brand – Canon imagePress– to meet the digital color requirements of these markets.

The introduction of the imagePress brand signifies Canon’s anticipated, and very late, entrance into the high-end, high-quality color digital press market. According to Canon’s press release of September 14, 2005, Canon is predicted to revolutionize digital color printing in the same way the Company’s first color laser copier, the CLC-1 set the standard for color image quality in 1987. The press release continues, “as a true imaging solutions company, Canon’s business direction is to combine the highest quality color output with unmatched media handling capabilities – differentiating us from the competition.”

Excuse me if I yawn somewhat at this over inflated spiel, but then I do tend to see many press releases from lots of companies as statements that ignore the reality of what is real in the market. For Canon to make such claims is somewhat opposite to what is happening, when so far Canon has had no product that is really relevant in the high-quality digital color press area, and has a long way to go to catch up with the market leaders in this area. Its leading product today for commercial printing and graphic arts is the CLC 5100, which is well below the capabilities of competitive products from Fuji Xerox and Konica Minolta in terms of color quality and paper handling. In terms of color quality its office oriented Color ImageRunner 3200 is far better than the CLC 5100 and as good as anything equivalent from its competitors. Canon however sees the real opportunities of the higher quality markets and is rapidly moving into catch up mode. It is following the Xerox model by setting up specific graphic arts sales and market groups ready for the time when its has a range of products suited for the market under the imagePress brand.