In what looks like a bid to redeem some of that $170m it sank into NeXT Computer Inc over the last few years, Canon Inc’s US marketing arm, Canon Computer Systems Inc, has set up a separate business unit called the Advanced Technologies Operation in Hillsboro, Oregon (CI No 2,369). The new division will handle iAPX-86- and PowerPC-based NeXTstations and other high-end personal computer systems, notably the anticipated PowerPC gear Canon is designing with Menlo Park, California start-up PowerHouse Systems Inc, a NeXT spin-out in which Canon Japan has majority ownership (CI No 2,366). Advanced Technologies expects to have alpha, possibly beta boxes of what it will brand the Canon NeXTstation deliverable by April, with production units available late in the second quarter. The 80486 and Pentium versions will follow towards the end of the year. It believes they’ll probably run MS-DOS and Windows programs native as well as NeXTstep and legacy applications running under NeXTstep, compliments of Insignia Solutions Ltd’s SoftPC. Canon Advanced Technologies claims the hardware will be optimised for NeXTstep with Canon-patented technologies such as video subsystems. Former Seiko Epson Co people Al Thomason and Bret Gutzka are now respectively executive director and director of sales of Canon Advanced Technologies – Epson was at one stage working on NeXTstep. Advanced Technologies will essentially focus on client-server and mission-critical markets while the rest of Canon Computer handles its existing home and small office products. As a result, Canon Computer, which completed its first year in operation in 1993, is now saying it intends to be a billion dollar company by 1997, and says it is almost halfway there already. Canon Computer president and chief executive Yasuhiro Tsubota expects the Advanced Technologies interests to contribute 10% to 15% of the increase. Canon Computer’s 190,000 square foot facility in Memphis, Tennessee, will be the distribution, assembly and testing centre. Advanced Technologies said last week it didn’t have its pricing schedule solidified yet but promised that it would be competitive with whatever the high-end Pentium personal computer market is doing at the time. It aims to distribute the boxes mainly through integrators, or so it appears.
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