History of Products. The Kwanon, Japan's first 35 mm focal-plane-shutter camera, is produced in prototype form. The Hansa Canon, a 35 mm focal-plane-shutter camera, is introduced. In-house production of Serenar Lens commences. Japan's first indirect X-ray camera is developed. Indirect X-ray camera. Takeshi Mitarai. Production commences for the midrange J II focal-plane-shutter camera. Profit margins ranged from 1. The slowdown was partly attributable to the maturation of some of Canon's key product areas, notably copiers and cameras.
The maturation in cameras--especially the SLR cameras Canon specialized in--affected Canon much less severely than other major camera makers notably Minolta and Nikon , who relied on cameras for a much larger portion of overall sales than Canon did. In , cameras comprised only 19 percent of overall Canon sales compared to 44 and 43 percent for Minolta and Nikon, respectively , and by the percentage had dropped to 8.
Thus, the rapid growth in popularity of compact cameras, which began with Fuji's launch of the QuickSnap disposable camera in and was advanced by Konica's introduction of the Big Mini the first super-compact camera , did not push Canon into the huge losses suffered by Minolta and Nikon in the early s. Still, Canon quickly reacted to the new competition by developing its own compact camera, the Sure Shot, which grew into a full line of nearly a dozen models by the mids.
In the meantime, however, Fuji had passed Canon as the world's top camera maker by A larger factor in the s slowdown was the recession in Japan and the appreciation of the yen, both of which affected all Japanese companies but hit the export-oriented electronic giants like Canon especially hard.
In response, the company made a major commitment to advance its globalization, in particular by moving production out of Japan--whenever possible to where the products were sold. For example, Canon began to produce bubble-jet printers in Mexico in , then started production of the same in Scotland the following year. The company also aggressively sought out new markets for its goods, setting a goal of increasing Asian-Pacific sales outside of Japan to 10 percent of overall sales, and marketing products to Russia for the first time in through the Finland-based Oy Canon AB subsidiary.
In the face of these years of slower growth, Canon continued its historic commitment to high expenditures on research and development averaging about 5 percent of net sales and risk-taking new product development.
Back in a Canon engineer had accidently invented the bubble-jet printing technology, which Canon then somewhat belatedly marketed successfully in the early s. The BJC full-color bubble-jet printer was introduced in , followed in by the innovative notebook computer with built-in color bubble-jet printer, a product developed in partnership with IBM.
Canon's determination to become a major player in the personal computer field was seen as particularly risky, given the failure of NeXT which exited the hardware business in and the highly competitive nature of the personal computer market. Of course, Canon's partnership strategy--which continued in with another venture with IBM to develop small computers based on IBM's PowerPC chip--was designed to alleviate some of the risk.
Nonetheless, evidence existed that Canon was still willing to venture into territory few dared enter, notably its research into the ferroelectric liquid crystal display FLCD. Whether either FLCD or Canon's entry into the PC market would prove as successful as such previous innovations as plain-paper copying and bubble-jet printing was uncertain as Canon neared the 21st century.
The company, however, had weathered the worst of the Japanese recession and maintained major shares of the copier, laser printer, bubble-jet printer, and SLR camera markets. This represented a tremendous achievement for less than 70 years in existence, with more Canon success seeming to be in store for the future.
Principal Subsidiaries: Canon Aptex Inc. Austria ; Canon Benelux N. China ; Canon Zhuhai, Inc. France ; Canon France S. Hong Kong ; Canon Hongkong Co. Italy ; Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn. Mexico ; Canon Benelux N. Netherlands ; Canon Europa N. Singapore ; Canon Singapore Pte. Toggle navigation. User Contributions:. Take in the vast beauty of the landscape. Portrait tips for creative family photos to inventive party snaps.
Long nights and frosty mornings, make the most of winter. Try a new creative technique, or improve your results. Find light in darkness with these tips and techniques. Share your passions with vlogging. Master the light any time, anywhere. Shoot in monochrome for timeless chic. Download drivers for your Canon product. Download software for your Canon product. Download a user manual for your Canon product. Download firmware for your Canon product.
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Expert services to keep your equipment working perfectly, enhance its imaging performance or repair it. Canon Inc Background. Canon Inc. Background Canon Inc. Download the Canon Inc. Corporate Profile: Canon Inc. Ltd, the predecessor of Canon Inc. The company now develops, manufactures and sells a wide range of copying machines, printers, cameras, optical products and other products to meet a diverse variety of customer needs. The Canon brand is well recognised and trusted worldwide by individuals, families and in businesses and industrial sectors.
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