Canon unveils "hybrid" color printers

NEW YORK: Consumer electronics maker Canon Inc. unveiled new "hybrid" copiers, aimed at building its share in the market for office users that only occasionally need their pages printed in color.

Canon U.S.A. Inc., a unit of Japan's Canon Inc., unveiled the Imagerunner C6800 and Imagerunner C3100 Series, expanding its line of black-and-white and color networked digital multi-functional imaging systems.

Printers makers such as Canon, Xerox Corp., Ricoh Co. Ltd. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are looking to color to drive growth in the printer market. Spurred by affordable operating costs and a belief that color can improve the value of their document, more and more businesses are buying color printers linked to corporate networks.

P>"Most of the documents they (users) deal with on-screen are in color and they are looking to add color to the output as a way to either attract attention or to convey the message more effectively," said Canon USA executive, Dennis Amorosano.

He noted that the C3100 will range in price from about $9,000 to $11,00, while the C6800, a high-volume model, will sell for about $24,000. Both machines print, copy and scan documents.

Amorosano said that customer, seeing improvements in the economy, appear to be more willing buy new equipment, after delaying such decisions in recent years.

"The economy seemed to have improved and customers are freeing up some dollars for capital expenditures," he said. "There is a lot more spending for technology today than there was 12 months ago.

© Reuters