Xerox to Unveil Multipurpose Office Machine : Technology: The device will be able to copy, fax, scan images and print documents. But its market may be tempered by an expected $200,000 price.

Xerox Corp. plans to unveil a product Tuesday that it calls its most important development since it introduced the modern copying machine 31 years ago.

The new device is a combination copier, fax, image scanner and document printer. It is designed to tie together these now-separate operations at large companies.

Using the machine, a worker could push a button on his desktop computer and order up one--or several hundred--high-quality, bound copies of a 50-page report. He also could send a fax of a computer document to another computer user.

In addition, the machine could electronically “scan in” paper documents that could then be stored in a computer or manipulated on a computer screen.

“It’s really meant to bring the copier into the computer network,” said Ann Palermo, an analyst at the market research firm International Data Corp.

The device is considered a gamble by Xerox, which has been disappointed in the past by coming up with technological breakthroughs, then losing the market for them to other companies.

“They have spent a fortune on the development of this system”--hundreds of millions of dollars, said Eugene Glazer, an analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.

“The people that have seen it are very impressed,” he said. But, he added, the market potential for the device--expected to cost at least $200,000--is uncertain.

“They’re trying to create a market, and the question is: Can they create it at that price?” said Peter Enderlin, an analyst at Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Co.

Added Glazer, “They’ll be introducing it into a difficult economic environment, where the budgets of potential user organizations will be under constraints.”

Xerox, which declined to discuss the product, apparently views the new device as a way for companies to centralize control over the proliferation of paper and computer documents.

Electronic “imaging” systems are offered by other companies but have not yet found a mass market. Computer industry giants such as International Business Machines Corp. and Unisys Corp. have stepped up their promotion of imaging devices in recent months, but most are aimed at specific markets, particularly banking.

Palermo said the machine, believed to be called the Docutech Publisher, could replace print shops at major companies. She said high-speed printing devices used for high-quality, multiple-copy reproduction cost about $150,000, so the anticipated price of the Xerox machine is not out of line.

Last month, Eastman Kodak Co. unveiled a high-speed document printer designed to work with networks of desktop computers. But the machine lacks faxing and scanning capabilities.

Xerox invented the personal computer, the “user-friendly” graphical software to run it and the computer control device called the “mouse,” only to see them slip out of its hands and enrich competitors who marketed them better.