Canon’s Philippine office recently unveiled some 19 new products, from high-end digital cameras, printers and all-inones, which will be shipped by the firm’s network of distributors sometime in April.

Canon Marketing Philippines president Ramon Arteficio, in a press briefing announcing the product rollout said Canon hopes to increase its market share, particularly in digital imaging, which has seen a renewed interest among local buyers.

"Canon demonstrates our digital prowess again by addressing the fastgrowing interest in photography at various levels of expertise," Ateficio said.

Canon recently unveiled the new product line and said availability of the products will come in varying shipment schedules.

"We just need to give the resellers and suppliers sometime to ship. But we are looking at this month for the general availability of the products," Arteficio said.

According to Canon product specialists, the product lines will cater to the needs of various market segments in the country, including the youth, businessmen and "casual" users.

Canon’s product presentations also focused heavily on its new digital camera line, where Canon is hoping to increase market share.

Industry estimates say the Asian digital camera market is expected to continue growing to represent more than 30 percent of the global market.

Unit shipments are expected to reach 54.33 million in 2009, giving a revenue number of 54.9 million, various industry reports say.

Canon is also hyping up its all-in-one printers, hoping to snare significant share in this market which is currently dominated by rival Hewlett-Packard.

Shipments of printers and inkjet multifunction products in the Asia Pacific region meanwhile grew 12 percent, reaching 5.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005 on increased year-end business and government purchases and improving consumer sentiment.