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Canon says to catch rivals in color copiers soon By Nathan Layne TOKYO (Reuters) - Canon Inc. (7751.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it was developing the engine for a high-speed color copier that is expected to help it catch up with its rivals in the fast-growing market for color office machines. Canon is the world's largest maker of copiers ahead of Ricoh Co. Ltd. (7752.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Xerox (XRX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) because of its strong position in black-and-white models, which still account for roughly 90 percent of the global market in unit terms. But Canon has lagged its top two rivals in preparing its product line-up for the ongoing switch by businesses to color copiers, which tend to be more profitable than monochrome models as they fetch a higher selling price and consume more ink. One of Canon's biggest holes has been its lack of a high-speed color copier that can churn out more than 40 pages per minute. Ricoh, Fuji Xerox and Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. (4902.T: Quote, Profile, Research) have already launched products in this range. Canon said it was still developing a four-drum engine for such a machine. Most of the company's copiers now use one-drum engines, which are generally cheaper to make and operate but are not capable of producing color documents at the higher speeds. "It is true that our line-up of color products is a bit behind, especially when it comes to tandem (four-drum) models," Masaki Nakaoka, director and chief executive of Canon's office imaging products operations, told Reuters in an interview. "But we should be able to catch up soon." Nakaoka declined to say when the new model would hit the market but one analyst said Canon would need to introduce the copier by the end of this year or risk falling further behind its rivals, which are gearing up to launch even faster machines. Copiers are one of Canon's most profitable products. Its office equipment division, which also includes printers, generated an operating profit margin of 22 percent in 2004 and accounted for the bulk of the group's profits. According to a report issued by Morgan Stanley Research in April, Canon controlled 27 percent of the overall copier market in 2004 but only 21.9 percent of color models, behind Xerox at 26.3 percent and Ricoh with its 26.1 percent share.
http://www.microsite.reuters.com
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