LAKE SUCCESS, NY, March 9, 2001 - Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) and market leader in imaging solutions, announced today that it achieved the overall number one market share position for copiers in the U.S. in 2000, for the third consecutive year, according to the final results of market studies completed by Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Inc. The Dataquest research focused on market share for color and black and white copiers of both digital and analog technology, combined, including PC copiers and copiers in Segments 1-6, which range in speed from 11 to 90+ copies-per-minute. The Dataquest ranking marks the 18th time in the last 19 years that Canon has held the number one position in the U.S. copier marketplace, with 628,910 total black-and-white unit shipments and 32% share in 2000, compared with 490,000 unit shipments and 25% share for Xerox, 199,957 unit shipments and 10% market share for Sharp, and 100,000 unit shipments and 5% share for Ricoh branded products. In color laser copier shipments, Canon also held the number one position in market share in 2000 with 15,940 unit shipments and 35% share, compared with 13,565 unit shipments and 30% share for Xerox, and 5,115 unit shipments and 11% share for Ricoh branded products. Canon Color Laser Copiers (CLCs) have now held the number one market share position in the U.S. for fourteen years in a row. "We are extremely pleased with the market share results revealed by the Dataquest study, which clearly demonstrate that Canon's performance and growth in the copier marketplace continues to be strong, particularly in the arena of digital, network connected copiers for the corporate market," said Tod Pike, senior vice president of Marketing, Imaging Systems Group at Canon U.S.A "Our dramatic success in the digital market, combined with our continued success in analog, has resulted in our ability to sustain our number one position for the third year in a row."