Management of Technology and Innovation in Japan

20 K. Sakakibara and Y. Matsumoto
the PM-770C (Y59,800). The BJ-F600 was competitive with regard to the body
price, featured lower running costs than the PM-770C, and offered the same resolution
of 1440 x 720 dpi as the PM-770C, which was the best in the industry at
that time. Despite the superior product attributes, fewer units of the BJ-F600 than
of the PM-770C were sold during Year-End Sales of 1998.
In this hardship Canon added its BJ-F200 in March 1999. It was 35% smaller
and 32% lighter than the BJC-430Lite and the complement model for the F600.
The price was set low at Y34,800. It was most likely intended for “family photoquality”
application (Nikkei Sangyo Shinbun, November 8, 1998). The size of the
F200 was obviously chosen with the family market in mind. A comparison with
the F600 is shown in Table 6. The resolution of the F200 was reduced to 720 x
360 dpi although a new automatic function that analyzed and adjusted the color
and the contrast of digital color photo images was added. Its running cost was
higher than that of the F600 for both black and color ink.
It is suspected that the reduction of the body price was one of the major objectives
during the transition from the F600 to the F200. The separate color ink
tanks/heads in the F600 were simplified into all-in-one color and black ink
tanks/heads (Refer to the icon change in Table 6).
The change in product architecture suggests that the intent was not only to reduce
the price of a printer body but also to make sure that Canon prospered in that
tough competitive market. Instead of emphasizing promotional activities to sell
the superior quality F-600, Canon changed the product architecture, employing a
technological product development solution, to attempt to maintain its profitability.
Table 6. Evolution of Canon products: high resolution (2)
Model name
(launching date)
BJ-F600 (11/98) BJ-F200 (3/99)
Price - body only (Y) Y54,800 Y34,800
Resolution (dpi) 1,440 x 720 720 x 360
Running cost (Y)
Replacement cartridge style
Source: Appendix 1 and 2.
Y1.0 (black)
Y7.4 (4 colors)
Y11.2 (6 colors)
Separate head, separate
color ink
Y3.7 (black)
Y24.6 (color)
Separate head, all-in-one
color