Canon Solutions America Hosts 10th thINK Conference

"Print really has the power to move," Francis McMahon, executive vice president, Production Print Solutions, at Canon Solutions America, told attendees at thINK ahead Tuesday morning.

McMahon opened the first full day of the 10th annual conference with a look at the state of Canon Solutions America today and where it is headed in the future, but he began with the impact print has on people.

"Everybody in this room just loves print," he said. "There's this emotional impact that you get from seeing printed communications and it's unlike any other medium that's available today."

Inkjet Page Volume Is Growing

To give attendees a better understanding of page volume, specifically in web-fed production inkjet printing and sheetfed production inkjet printing, McMahon shared some specifics from I.T. Strategies. In the world of web-fed production inkjet printing, he noted there were 494 billion pages in 2023.

"That's a worldwide number," he pointed out. "Forty-six percent of those pages ... 227 billion pages were produced right here in the United States, of which 57.5 billion of those pages were printed on 644 Canon continuous-feed presses that our customers have. That's how well the industry is doing. That's where the industry is going."

Moving to the cut-sheet space, he explained that comparatively it's still a "fairly young" technology with significant growth potential. It's already experiencing steady growth with 45 billion pages produced in 2023 and a growth rate of 27% moving into 2024 and the next three years. However, it's the percentage of those pages printed on Canon devices that stood out.

"The number of pages printed on sheetfed inkjet will almost double, and 65% of those pages were printed on Canon [varioPRINT] iX3200s," he said, "on 259 U.S. Canon iX3200s."

Filling in the Gaps

McMahon also shared a graph visualizing Canon's complete production inkjet portfolio and how in the past few years, the company has started to fill in the "gaps" on the chart in terms of hardware value and speed.

"When you look at our portfolio, we could not be more excited about what we're bringing out as relates to innovation," he said to the audience. "You can just imagine the R&D investment — three brand new product announcements just in the last year, just the last few weeks really ... and advancements in the ProStream (3160), the ColorStream (8200), and iX (1700) platforms. So we're here for you. We're here for you today."

A Focus on Service

Emphasizing not only Canon Solutions America's leading total high-volume U.S. inkjet market share — the majority (35%) in fiscal year 2023 and the majority (32%) in Q1 2024 — McMahon also emphasized Canon's dedication to its customers, and the service and support it provides them.

"Really what is our role? What is our goal? What do we do as an organization? It's simple. It's not about selling presses," he said. "That's not what we're about. What we're about is capturing pages for all of you. That's the job. When my organization comes into the office every single morning. It's not about how many presses we're going to sell. It's about how are we going to help our customers drive as much volume as possible."

He explained that the company intends to focus even more on service through recent changes in leadership, a new service culture, and a more than $1.5 million investment in a new training facility in Boca Raton, Florida. The new facility, which will be open at the end of Q3 2024, intends to provide advanced training for technicians, bolstering Canon's ability to assist its customers. This includes a new program called the "customer technician program," enabling customers to send up to two employees to the new facility for first-level service training. The full launch will be in the first half of next year,  according to McMahon.

"This will eliminate the initial response times that you normally have and they will be able to fix a lot of things that you want to fix on your own," he explained.

New Technology Handles Expanded Applications

Following drupa, there has been a buzz around Canon's newest technology, the varioPRINT iX1700 B3-format production inkjet press (available in late 2025) and the varioPRESS iV7 B2-format production inkjet device (available in late 2025 or early 2026). Attendees were able to view the varioPRINT iX1700 on-site at Canon's Customer Innovation Center in Boca Raton during thINK, marking its first showing in the U.S.

"The site readiness is going to be much easier," he said. "It handles a breadth of applications that we've never seen before. And I believe that all of you are going to really embrace this new technology."

The varioPRINT iX1700 was on-site at Canon's Customer Innovation Center in Boca Raton, Florida, so thINK attendees could watch it operate. | Credit: Canon Solutions America

Turning to the new B2-format inkjet device announced at drupa, McMahon said the varioPRESS iV7 opens up new possibilities in terms of speed (4,300 perfected sheets/hr.) and quality.

"This will be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, B2 platforms," he said. "The image quality that we're already seeing off this device is unlike any sheetfed device that I've seen today."

McMahon closed out the session by reiterating Canon's focus on its customers and developing technology to meet the changing demands of the industry.

"Our business is run because all of you have confidence and we're going to continue to earn your confidence," he said. "We're going to continue to innovate. We're going to continue to develop. We're going to continue to invest in service, and we're going to hopefully earn being your partner of choice as we move into future weeks, months, and years."