*NEWS*CANON’s NEW LINE OF OFFICE PRINTERS

[Anonymous]

Canon introduces new line of office printers

Canon Inc. has launched three new desktop laser beam printers (LBP) to
complement its imageRUNNER line of multi-function printers (MFP).

“LBP is a departure for Canon,” said Mark Phillips, assistant
manager of product marketing of the imaging systems group for Canon Canada.
“We haven’t had a single function printer for our imageRUNNER line, so we
are offering this LBP so [companies] can both have a desktop and a central
MFP,” he added.

The new printers include two color and a monochrome desktop LBPs: The Color
imageRUNNER LBP5960, Color imageRUNNER LBP5360, and imageRUNNER LBP3460 desktop
printers. All are available now in North America exclusively through Canon’s
imageRUNNER dealers and priced at $3,399 (U.S.) for the LBP 5960, $1,350 for
the 5360 and $999 for the 3460.

These three LBPs complement Canon’s imageRUNNER MFP line because it has
common drivers, common software and common tools so users will be familiar on
how to use the new LBP printers.

Aside from being a complement to its MFP imageRUNNERs, the other benefit of
Canon’s LBP printers is it has UFR2 technology, which prints faster than
traditional printers.

“UFR2 is Canon proprietary technology that makes these devices prints
much faster [because] it talks in the language of the machine that makes it
faster for processing print files,” said Phillips.

As well, the LBPs have Color RAPID Fusing (LBP5960 and LBP5360) and RAPID
Fusing (LBP3460) technology that allows for short warm-up times and high
throughput speeds.

Phillips added that the LBP printers that Canon has launched are targeted at
small to corporate-type businesses like a CEO that might want to have a
personal LBP in addition to a traditional workgroup or departmental MFP
printer.

For channel partners, the imageRUNNER LBPs are also new.

“They’ve been asking for a solution [like this]. They have the
imageRUNNER MFPs but they have to go to another manufacture if a customer
wanted a single function printer as well,” said Phillips. “The LBPs
allow the dealer to offer a complete imageRUNNER solution right away,” he
added.

It also gives channel partners some freedom from competing solely on price
because they are not going to be running into every dealer trying to sell LBPs.

“[Partners] have the advantage that they can tailor a solution to a
particular customer and then have more of a value-add approach as oppose to a
lower price approach with these LBPs,” said Phillips.

In addition to the new desktop printers, Canon has also launched the
imageRUNNER 50 series. Printers in this series are targeted at high-volume
offices or light production-type volumes. The imageRUNNER 5075/5065/5055
devices delivers digital output at speeds of up to 75 pages-per-minute (ppm),
65ppm and 55 ppm, respectively as well as offering 1200dpi advanced finishing
and a single-pass duplex scanner.

“It’s designed to offer more speed, quality and overall functionality
that have not been in previous models,” said Phillips.

He added that people were asking for a model like the imageRUNNER 50 series.

“It fills a hole between our 6570 and 7086 models. The 6570 was good
but wasn’t aimed at the light production market and the 7086 was more money
than [companies] were willing to spend. The 5075 has the sweet spot for light
production users and affordable to have advance production capabilities that
offer a number of features they couldn’t have in slower units such as the
6570,” noted Phillips.

The imageRUNNER 50 series is available worldwide also exclusively through
Canon’s imageRUNNER series. The 5075 is available now at a price of $28,000
(U.S.). The 5065 and 5055 will be available in late April and is priced at
$21,500 and $17,000 respectively.

Carmi Levy, senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group, said what
Canon is trying to do with the release of these new printers reflects a growing
understanding and appreciation that per page costs are more critical than
upfront costs within the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) space.

“There is a growing reality within the printer market that customers
really care about lowering their cost per page. [The Canon solutions] reflect
that core messaging and that over the life of a printer these things matter far
more than the initial purchase price,” said Levy.

As well, he added that the new Canon printers will
continue the push of more sophisticated printing solutions into the lower
echelon of the market, which is good news for SMBs.

[Author]

April 9, 2007 at 12:18 PM