LAKE SUCCESS, NY, March 12, 2001 - Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) and market leader in color imaging solutions, announced today that it has again achieved the number one position in total U.S. color laser copier market share for 2000. The ranking represents the final results of market research completed by Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Inc., one of the world's leading IT market research and consulting firms. The top U.S. color laser copier position marks Canon's 14th consecutive year as number one, with 15,940 unit shipments and 35% share in 2000, according to Dataquest. "Despite increasing competition and a number of new entrants in the color market, Canon continued its leadership position, and we are very proud to claim the top spot once again," said Mason Olds, director and general manager, Graphics Systems Division at Canon U.S.A. "Since 1987 when we introduced the first CLC, to today, more customers have chosen Canon color laser than any other manufacturer on an annual basis." Growth in the color laser copier market was 19% overall in 2000 over 1999, from 38,580 to 45,868 units total, according to Dataquest. Canon's growth in color exceeded the market at 20% for 2000 over 1999, fueled by the CLC 1100 series, the industry's first 11 page-per-minute color laser copier/printer, and production level CLC 1000, 2400, and 3100 models. "Throughout 2001, we expect to continue our success with new products such as the Color imageRUNNER C2050 and CLC 5000, which, with their high price/performance ratio should compliment our existing CLC lineup in taking additional market share from our competition," added Olds.