HEWLETT-Packard, the world's leading maker of colour printers, more than doubled the sale of its colour printers last year.
HP sold about two million colour DeskJet printers worldwide, which represents a 122 per cent increase over 1992, when it sold almost 900,000. It sold 120,000 in 1991.
By selling two million colour DeskJet printers, HP sold more than all other makes of colour printers combined, according to BIS Strategic Decisions, a market-research firm based in Norwell, Massachusetts.
''Colour printer sales are growing faster than sales for all other types of printers and HP is responsible for most of these sales,'' Richard Snyder, general manager of HP's DeskJet Printer Group, said.
HP's black-and-white DeskJet 500 printer was the best-selling printer in the world in 1992 and repeated the feat in 1993.
However, the ratio of colour DeskJet printers sold by HP to black-and-white DeskJet printers shifted significantly by the end of the year.
HP now sold more colour DeskJet printers than black-and-white DeskJet printers, the company said.