A major Japanese printer or copier maker (Canon, Ricoh, Fujifilm or Konica Minolta) will announce a China-specific firmware localisation partnership with a Chinese software developer within six months.

China's commerce ministry has opened its first-ever national security investigation into imported office printing and copying equipment running foreign system software, and facing exclusion from government and state-enterprise procurement, these Japanese manufacturers have strong incentive to swap in Chinese-developed firmware.