This Week in Imaging: A Look at One of the Longest-Running Printer Company Partnerships

by Kathleen Wirth · November 15, 2024

It goes without saying that this month has seen some world-changing events. But among them in its own way was the anniversary of one of the printer industry’s longest partnership ever – that of HP Inc. and Canon Inc. This month, the two companies celebrated the 40th anniversary of their successful partnership, with Canon executives visiting HP at HP’s Palo Alto headquarters.

Under the partnership, Canon has been supplying HP with laser print engines and supplies. HP then develops and markets HP laser printers, adding the HP touch, such as HP-developed PCL print drivers and management solutions. Canon also defends HP toner cartridges around the world from third-party toner cartridges that infringe on the companies’ patents.

From the outside at least, this has been a smooth partnership, even when Canon began marketing its own laser printers. Canon even came to the rescue of HP when Xerox attempted a hostile takeover of HP. Canon CEO Fujio Mitarai responded by stating that a Xerox takeover would create a competitor to Canon’s office equipment business. Xerox withdrew its bid at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but Canon’s stance likely helped in Xerox’s withdrawal.

The rival to this partnership is of course Lexmark, which has been OEMing its own A4 print engines to various companies, including more recently, Xerox. On a much smaller scale is Ninestar Corporation’s Pantum brand, which has been gaining market share in China

While partnerships do come and go (think of Xerox and Fujifilm), this has been a very successful partnership – HP for instance has remained number-one in global printer market share for decades – and it’s likely to endure for decades more – or at least until people stop printing.

This Week in Imaging

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