Canon circumvents chip crisis with revised toner

The semiconductor crisis has been affecting almost all market sectors for almost two years now. Whether consumer electronics, automotive manufacturing or smartphone production – without the valuable chips, nothing works anymore. Long waiting times, annoyed customers and desperate companies are the result. But what is the best way to avoid such a shortage? Canon has found a simple and ingenious solution. The globally successful printer manufacturer has revolutionized its toner without further ado. This is to get along starting from coming month completely without chips.

From February 2022 chip-free printer toner

It is not unusual for revolutionary inventions to emerge from crises. Canon could now also succeed in doing so. The company has in fact developed a way to dispense entirely with semiconductors in the production of its toner cartridges. Of course, this development came from the own initiative of the company known for its printers. Instead, the global shortage of valuable semiconductors, or chips, made the manufacturer reluctant to rely on them.

In Oceania it is to start

The change in production is not expected to take immediate effect in the company’s global market, according to the report published by online magazine “Neowin.” Instead, the revised printer cartridges are to be offered initially only in Australia and New Zealand. This seems to be a kind of test phase. After all, we don’t yet know if Canon’s revised strategy is really one with global implications.

Advantages for the customer

What may initially sound like an annoying lack of valuable technology from the customer’s point of view, could in the end prove to be a great advantage for the customer himself. If Canon were to do away with the chips in its cartridges in the future, this would mean that customers would finally be able to escape the constraint of having to use Canon toners exclusively. Up to now, the chip has primarily been used as a control instrument to check whether the cartridge really comes from Canon. A corresponding check would then no longer be possible without further ado.