Embattled Xerox is basing its future on colour and increasing its service and consultancy.


"Just as we revolutionised black-and-white 10 years ago with the DocuTech, we must repeat this success with colour," said president and chief operating officer Ann Mulcahy. "Our aim is to make most products colour-enabled over the next three years."


Xerox claims that FutureColor will make serious inroads into the offset market. Outline specs are for a sheetfed 100 A4ppm duplex B3 machine with a four-tray paper supply to hold up to 10,000 sheets. It is scheduled for launch in 2002 and is likely to debut at Ipex.


It will use much less toner than current systems, which will halve print costs to 3.5p a page and improve image quality. RIT professor Frank Romano said: "I have only two words to say in reaction to the image quality: holy shit."


Xerox will adopt a more focused sales strategy, concentrating its own effort on high-end products and using dealers in other markets.


Consultancy and solutions may account for 10% of revenue by 2003.


Story by Barney Cox in New York