Edited interview with Katsuichi Shimizu, Head of Inkjet Products Operations

Taken from filmed speech

Part 1 Mr Shimizu’s vision of market development & how Canon will meet and drive it
“We are seeing new forces drive a period of rapid change, both to the print market and to the very nature of printing. Of these, the most important is the explosion of digital cameras and mobile phones, which is creating customer demand for personal photo printing.

“To meet this need, Canon’s vision is to make personal photo printing simple and to allow photos to be printed quickly and easily in the home, in offices or even on the move.

“As the popularity of photo printing grows, future printers must offer both great print quality and ease of use through direct connectivity with digital cameras.”

Part 2 How Canon will meet future market requirements – Canon’s development and technology expertise
“When considering this next phase in the printer market evolution, I realised that through high investment in R&D, Canon has accumulated an exceptional set of core technologies that are highly relevant to this market shift. In fact, Canon is ideally placed as the only manufacturer to have core technology advantages in cameras, copiers and printers. We have all the building blocks or, as I like to call it, the DNA, to create the printers of the future.

“My mission when I became Chief Executive of the printer division was clear: revitalize Canon’s Multi-function and printer products.

“Canon has a particular strength in the area of printer head performance. This comes from Canon’s unique and world leading manufacturing process, which uses wafer fabricators. These machines are primarily used to make computer chips and utilize one of the world’s most precise manufacturing techniques - Photolithography.

“We have modified and adapted this technology to make a printer head with the world’s smallest and most dense nozzle configurations. We call this technology Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering or simply FINE: F. I. N. E.”

Part 3 Canon has the best technology
“The Printers incorporating FINE technology deliver the fastest and highest quality photo prints, as well as offering outstanding all-round printing performance. Our FINE print head is capable of ejecting an astonishing 147 million droplets per second, to produce the fastest photo print speed without compromising quality.

“As well as the ability to print high quality photos quickly, personal printers will require great connectivity. Canon has been at the forefront of developments such as PictBridge, which allow direct digital camera to printer connection – the fastest and easiest way to print digital photos.”

Part 4 Canon recognizes the importance of design
“In future, performance and features alone will not be sufficient to ensure success. Products such as the IXUS have demonstrated time after time that success can be achieved through powerful design. I experienced this as head of the scanner products when we introduced LiDE technology – ultra slim, ultra stylish scanners that allowed Canon to become the world’s leading scanner brand.”

Part 5 Mr. Shimizu brings together design and performance to create PIXMA printers
“We made a decision to bring together leading performance and outstanding design into a new generation of printer products.

“I invited our top design team to bring together elegance and function – to create products that people will truly want to own; that they will desire for their appearance as well as capability.

“This new generation of products is PIXMA.

“Going beyond good looks, PIXMA printers have special features to allow them to fit into many environments. Dual paper feeding enables them to be located in narrow shelves, or flush with corners and walls.”

Part 6 What does PIXMA mean?*
“PIXMA is a new brand of Canon printers and MFPs. For the customer PIXMA means all-powerful performance and great design, plus Canon’s commitment to quality and reliability.

“Fundamentally, PIXMA is bringing together the DNA of Canon’s three separate product fields - EOS Digital Photography, imageRUNNER copiers and Bubble Jet Print heads. This fusion of technologies has created a performance level capable of meeting consumers’ demands.

“All PIXMA products will have photolab capability – stunning quality photos realized by 2pl FINE technology.

“With class-leading plain paper speed and quality, FINE technology offers exceptional business performance. Elsewhere in the range, PIXMA offers a host of additional features such as duplex printing and CD-Rom printing, to truly meet the demands of the future printer market.”

* Speech content has been edited slightly in this section due to embargo restrictions