Minolta has projected a 300% growth in digital colour copier sales by the end of June 2002 as more and more users begin to understand the value of colour in their documents.

According to Minolta's colour copier Product Manager, Marianna Gdanis, the major factors driving this growth are desktop computers with colour monitors, software applications in colour, the need for professional presentation documents, and the web.

Gdanis adds that research done by Minolta Japan shows there is definitely an increased demand for colour. "The research, focused on corporate users, showed that although 93% of companies were still using monochrome printers, 50% of these users said they spent large amounts of money on outside colour copying," she says. The same monochrome users said that marketing and presentations would-be key applications for future equipment purchases.

The research also showed that the majority of colour printer users also spend massive amounts of money on outside colour copying siting price, print quality and operating costs as the biggest limitations of their colour printers. Colour copier/printer users, on the other hand, said that speed, operating costs, equipment cost and duplexing were their biggest limitations.

"There is clearly a need for monochrome users to print in colour, for colour printer users to find a more economical way to address high volume colour copying needs," says Gdanis. Minolta's answer to addressing these needs is a range of high quality digital colour copiers and printers, the CF9001, CF1501 and CF2001.

The CF9001 is targeted at graphics arts and copy shop environments, a market that requires the highest quality in digital colour copiers and printers at competitive running costs. The CF1501 and CF2001 are targeted at corporate environments where speed, operating costs and finishing options such as duplex, sorting, stapling and hole punching, are important. Both machines are able to print the same number of colour copies in the same amount of time that it takes to print black-and-white copies.

Minolta

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