Canon Computer Systems

Last updated
Canon Computer Systems
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryComputers
FoundedApril 1992;30 years ago (1992-04)
DefunctJanuary 2001;22 years ago (2001-01)
FateRestructured
SuccessorCanon Digital Home and Personal Systems
Headquarters
Costa Mesa, California
,
United States
Products
Parent Canon Inc.

Canon Computer Systems, Inc. (CCSI), sometimes shortened to Canon Computer, was an American subsidiary of Canon Inc. formed in 1992 to develop and market the parent company's personal computers and workstations. The subsidiary also assumed the responsibility of marketing Canon's printers and photocopiers, which were formerly sold by other Canon divisions. It went defunct in January 2001.

Contents

History

Canon entered the computer industry in the 1970s, [1] starting with the AX-1 in October 1978. It sported the form factor of a desktop calculator and was fully programmable. [2] [3] This was followed up with the AS-100 in 1982, which was a more-traditional albeit heavier personal computer that ran a Intel 8088 and ran MS-DOS. [4] [3] Canon entered the home computer market in 1984 with the V-20 and V-10 in 1984 and 1985 respectively. [3] In 1987, the company released the Canon Cat—the brainchild of Jef Raskin who pioneered Apple's original Macintosh. [5] In 1989, the company took a large stake in NeXT, a computer hardware company founded by Steve Jobs in 1987 after he resigned as CEO of Apple in the mid-1980s. [6]

In April 1992, Canon spun off their computer manufacturing into Canon Computer Systems, a new subsidiary that also assumed the responsibility of marketing their parent company's printers and photocopiers. The subsidiary initially comprised 100 employees in October 1992, 50 based in Costa Mesa, California. Yasuhiro Tsubota, who founded Epson America in 1978, was named president. Several other higher-ups came from Epson America; [7] Tsubota left Epson for NeXT 1990, to serve as a consultant for Jobs. [8] The subsidiary's first offerings were a line of desktop computers and notebooks, branded as the Innova and Innova Book respectively. The company expected $125 million in revenue by October 1993. [7] They allocated $10 million of their initial budget on advertising, hiring the newly formed Hajjar/Kaufman (a spinoff of Dentsu) as their advertising agency. [9]

Most if not all of the notebooks in the Innova Book line were produced offshore by Taiwanese OEMs. Canon repeatedly turned to Chicony of Taipei, who lent their designs to Canon for their Innova Book 10 and Innova Book 200LS. [10] [11] The former, released in 1994, was a subnotebook four pounds in weight, [12] while the latter, released in 1995, sported the largest screen of any laptop up to that point, at 11.3 inches diagonal. [13] [14] Canon Computer collaborated with IBM's Japanese subsidiary to produce the Canon NoteJet, a notebook computer with a built-in inkjet printer, introduced to market in 1993. [15] In March 1994, Canon Computer took the reins of the NeXTstation after NeXT ceased manufacturing hardware in 1993. [16] They later released the Object.Station, an x86-based workstation based on the NeXTstation design. [17]

Although Canon Computer set a goal of $1 billion sales by 1997 in 1994, they were considered late newcomers to the market of personal computers. [18] Innovas and Innova Books continued to be sold until January 1997, when the company quietly left the desktop and notebook market, citing poor sales. [19] The subsidiary shifted its focus to silicon-on-insulator manufacturing, spending ¥3 billion (US$25.8 million in 1997) to open up a clean room facility at Canon's plant in Hiratsuka, Tokyo. As part of this refocusing, Canon sold its existing shares of NeXT to Apple, who were in the process of acquiring that company after Jobs re-entered Apple in 1997. [1] Canon Computer continued to sell printers, scanners and digital cameras until January 2001, when the subsidiary was restructured and renamed to Canon Digital Home and Personal Systems. Tsubota was replaced by Ryoichi Bamba. [20]

Computers

Desktops

NameProcessorClock speed
(MHz)		Date
Innova 386SX/33 386SX 33October 1992 [21]
Innova 486 486SX 25October 1992 [21]
Innova 486SX/33 486SX 33August 1993 [22]
Innova 486e 486SX 25August 1993 [22]
Innova 486v 486DX2 33–66August 1993 [22]
Innova Vision L33/210 486SX 33March 1994 [23]
Innova Vision L50/340 486DX2 50March 1994 [23]
Innova Media MT4900 486DX4 100March 1995 [24]
Innova Media MT7010 Pentium 75March 1995 [24]
Innova Media MT9110 Pentium 100March 1995 [24]
Innova Media MT7000 Pentium 75March 1995 [24]
Innova Media MT9100 Pentium 90March 1995 [24]
Innova Media MT4610 486DX2 66June 1995 [25]
Innova Media MT9010 Pentium 90June 1995 [25]
Innova Media MT7030 Pentium 75August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT7040 Pentium 75August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT9120 Pentium 100August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT9130 Pentium 100August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT9300 Pentium 100August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT9310 Pentium 100August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT9320 Pentium 133August 1995 [26]
Innova Media MT9600 Pentium 166June 1996 [27]
Innova Pro 5100SD Pentium 100May 1996 [28]
Innova Pro 5400ST Pentium 166May 1996 [28]
Innova Media MT9210 Pentium 120November 1996 [29]
Innova Media MT9340 Pentium 133November 1996 [29]
Innova Media MT9350 Pentium 133November 1996 [29]
Innova Media MT9620 Pentium 166November 1996 [29]
Innova Media MT9630 Pentium 166November 1996 [29]
Innova Media MT9800 Pentium 200November 1996 [29]

Notebooks

Innova

NameProcessorClock speed
(MHz)		Date
Innova 386NX Am386SX 33October 1992 [30]
Innova 486NX 486SX 25October 1992 [30]
Innova Book 150C 486DX2 50August 1994 [31]
Innova Book 150CT 486DX2 50August 1994 [31]
Innova Book 1110 P75 Pentium 75November 1995 [32]
Innova Book 1100 P75T Pentium 75November 1995 [32]
Innova Book 1100 P90 Pentium 90November 1995 [32]
Innova Book 1100 P90T Pentium 90November 1995 [32]
Innova Book 1100 P120T Pentium 120November 1995 [32]
Innova Book 175C Cx486 100November 1995 [33]
Innova Book 200LS 486DX4 100February 1995 [14]
Innova Book 300P Pentium 75November 1995 [33]
Innova Book 350CD Cx5x86 100November 1995 [33]
Innova Book 360CD Am5x86 133April 1996 [34]
Innova Book 475CDS Pentium 100May 1996 [35]
Innova Book 475CDT Pentium 100May 1996 [35]
Innova Book 620CDT Pentium 133June 1996 [35]
Innova Book 480CDS Pentium 100November 1996 [29]
Innova Book 480CDT Pentium 100November 1996 [29]
Innova Book 490CDS Pentium 133November 1996 [29]
Innova Book 490CDT Pentium 133November 1996 [29]

Subnotebooks

NameProcessorClock speed
(MHz)		Date
Innova Book 10 486SL 33May 1994 [12]
Innova Book 10C 486SL 33May 1994 [12]

NoteJet

Main article: Canon NoteJet

Other

NameProcessorClock speed
(MHz)		Stock
RAM		LCD technologyDate
PN-100 PowerPC 603e 10016Active-matrix colorJuly 1995 [36]
Power Notebook PowerPC 603e 10032Active-matrix colorAugust 1995 [37]

Workstations

NameProcessorClock speed
(MHz)		Hard drive
interface		Date
Object.Station 31 Pentium 100 IDE February 1995 [38]
Object.Station 41 Pentium 100 SCSI February 1995 [38]
Object.Station 50 Pentium 100 SCSI June 1995 [39]
Object.Station 52 Pentium 120 SCSI June 1995 [39]
Power Workstation PowerPC 604 (single or dual)100, 120, or 133 SCSI June 1995 [40]

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References

  1. 1 2 Staff writer (January 7, 1997). "Canon Bows Out of PC Market And Instead Will Produce Wafers". Asian Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company: 7 – via ProQuest.
  2. ↑ Staff writer (April 15, 2011). "Canon AX-1". IPSJ Computer Museum. Archived from the original on July 3, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Wiltshire, Alex; John Short (2020). Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation. MIT Press. ISBN   9780262044011 – via Google Books. Excerpt in Leonard, Marie-Anne (2020). "The Canon V-20, home computing icon". Canon Inc. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021.
  4. ↑ Staff writer (n.d.). "Canon AS-100". Old-Computers.com. Archived from the original on August 2, 2021.
  5. ↑ Rubin, Ross (July 27, 2019). "Meet the Canon Cat, the forgotten 1987 alternate-reality Mac". Fast Company. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019.
  6. ↑ Staff writer (March 2, 1994). "Canon Computer to Ship NextStation". Los Angeles Times. Bloomberg Business News. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021.
  7. 1 2 Vranizan, Michelle (October 24, 1992). "Canon Computer Joins PC Wars". The Orange County Register: C1 – via ProQuest.
  8. ↑ Levin, Dan (January 1994). "Canon nabs Epson execs". NextWorld Extra. Archived from the original on March 11, 2010 – via Simson.net.
  9. ↑ Elliott, Stuart (November 16, 1992). "Dentsu Americ Forms a Spinoff". The New York Times: D7 – via ProQuest.
  10. ↑ Zimmerman, Michael R. (June 27, 1994). "Chicony sows crop of portables". PC Week. Ziff-Davis. 11 (25): 61 – via Gale OneFile.
  11. ↑ DiCarlo, Lisa (March 27, 1995). "IPC releases slim notebook, big-screen unit". PC Week. Ziff-Davis. 12 (12): 45 – via Gale OneFile.
  12. 1 2 3 Lee, Yvonne L. (May 9, 1994). "Canon ships color notebooks, ink-jet printers". InfoWorld. IDG Communications. 16 (19): 36 – via Google Books.
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  18. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (March 29, 1994). "Canon Computer a Latecomer to PC Movement". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021.
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  39. 1 2 Staff writer (June 5, 1995). "Canon Preps Pentiums". CommunicationsWeek. CMP Publications: 26 – via ProQuest.
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