The Japanese IT product maker Canon Inc surpassed the US-based company Hewlett-Packard Corp (HP) to become the largest maker of ink-jet printers in the Chinese market for the first time during the last quarter of 2011.

Canon only held 23 percent of the market for those products in 2008, putting it at No 8 in the ranking of the largest makers of those products. HP, for its part, had held the leading position for many years.

HP announced this year that it plans to merge its PC division with its printer divi-sion.

Canon now holds about 41 percent of the market for ink-jet printers in China, put-ting it in the leading position for the first time, according to the US-based IT research company IDC.

On Thursday, Canon re-leased a line of printers that come in five different colors, hoping to appeal to young shoppers in China.