The company wouldn't be drawn on what inkjet technology it would use, nor whether it would be based on the gel ink that it demonstrated at Drupa 2008.

"Xerox has never been a single technology company," said its global business group president Eric Armour. "Six years ago, we made a commitment to be a leader in continuous feed and now we have a strong position in monochrome and are building one in colour.

"We have technologies in our laboratory and, at Ipex, we will share that with you. Different technologies offer different value propositions."

Armour hinted that Xerox's next colour continuous feed machine would have a lower price and volume than current offerings in the market.

"We're seeing a need for a more affordable machine that enables a transition from monochrome to colour," he said. "There is a need for a lower cost and lower volume machine."

Xerox also said that, at the show in May, it will have decided whether or not to sell sister company Fuji Xerox's Color Press 1000 and Color press 800.

These two machines are the first production machines to be based on the emulsion aggregation toner technology as used in the light production Xerox 700. They also use tandem print engine technology to produce one-pass duplex print.

According to Xerox, it has also enhanced its monochrome and colour continuous feed toner machines.

Ipex 2010 is due to be held on 18-25 May, 2010, at the Birmingham NEC.