Taking aim at XEROX CORP.'s near-stranglehold on digital machines for print-on-demand establishments and centralized corporate production centers, CANON INC.'s Lake Success, New York subsidiary introduced its first high-volume digital printer/copier product. The imageRUNNER 110, which will be available in the first quarter of 2000, prints 110 pages of black text per minute with a resolution of 600 dots per inch. Interestingly, the machine will be made by the German printing press manufacturer that earlier this year bought EASTMAN KODAK CO.'s high-end copier business. Canon did not release any pricing information, but industry sources estimate that the imageRUNNER 110 will cost in the low $200,000 range. Xerox's DocuTech production printing line, which spans machines printing 65 ppm to 180 ppm, is priced between $100,000 and nearly $500,000. Over the last year or so, Canon has moved aggressively into the market for digital copiers/printers, unveiling imageRUNNER products for both low end and midrange copying requirements.
An exchange rate of ¥105=$1.00 was used in this report.aaaaa