|
Just to correct you - The company is Epson not Epsom , but don`t worry we have everything you need right here.
Seiko Epsom Corporation (セイコーエプソン株式会社, Seikō Epuson Kabushiki-gaisha?), or Epsom, is a Japanese company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of inkjet, dot matrix and laser printers, scanners, desktop computers, business, multimedia and home theatre projectors, large home theatre televisions, robots and industrial automation equipment, point of sale docket printers and cash registers, laptops, integrated circuits, LCD components and other associated electronic components. Traditionally, the company has been manufacturing Seiko timepieces since its foundation and is one of three core companies of the Seiko Group. Based in Nagano prefecture, Japan, they have numerous subsidiaries worldwide. The current CEO is Saburo Kusama. Net sales over 2006/2007 amounted to ¥1.416 trillion.
Daiwa Kogyo, Ltd. was founded in 1942 by Hisao Yamazaki in Suwa, Nagano. The company was backed by an investment from the Hattori family (founder of the Seiko Group) and began as a manufacturer of watch parts. It started operation in a 2,500 square-foot renovated miso storehouse with 22 employees. In 1943 Daini Seikosha (currently Seiko Instruments) established a factory in Suwa for manufacturing Seiko watches with Daiwa Kogyo. In 1959 the Suwa Factory of Daini Seikosha was split off and marged with Daiwa Kogyo to form Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd. The company has developed and commercialized many timepiece technologies. In particular, it developed the world's first portable quartz timer (Seiko QC-951) in 1963, the world's first quartz watch (Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ) in 1969, the world's first automatic power generating quartz watch (Seiko Auto-Quartz) in 1988 and the Spring Drive watch movement in 1999. Manufacturing watches still constitutes one of the major businesses of Seiko Epsom.[1] The watches made by the company are sold through the Seiko Watch Corporation, a subsidiary of Seiko Holdings Corporation.
In 1961 Shinshu Seiki Co., Ltd. was established as a subsidiary of Suwa Seikosha to supply precision parts for Seiko watches. When the Seiko Group was selected to be the official time keeper for the Tokyo Olympic games in 1964 a printing timer was required to time events, and Shinshu Seiki started development of an electronic printer. In September 1968, Shinshu Seiki launched the world's first miniprinter, the EP-101, which was soon incorporated into many calculators. In June 1975, the name Epsom was coined after the next generation of the EP-101 was released to the public ("Son of EP-101" became "Son of EP" which in turn became "Epsom"). In April of the same year Epsom America Inc. was established to sell printers for Shinshu Seiki Co.
Epsom MX-80 dot matrix printer
Epsom MX-80 dot matrix printer
In June 1978, the TX-80 eighty-column dot-matrix printer was released to the market, and was mainly used as a system printer for the Commodore PET Computer. After two years of further development, an improved model, the MX-80, was launched in October 1980. This was soon the best selling printer in the United States.
In July 1982, Shinshu Seiki officially named itself the Epsom Corporation and launched the world's first handheld computer, the HX-20 (HC-20), and in May 1983 the world's first portable color LCD TV was developed and launched by the company.
In November 1985, the Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd. and the Epsom Corporation merged to form the Seiko Epsom Corporation.
The company developed the Micro Piezo inkjet technology, which uses a piezoelectric crystal in each nozzle and does not heat the ink at the print head to project the ink onto the page, and released Epsom MJ-500 inkjet printer (Epsom Stylus 800) in March 1993. Shortly after, in 1994, Epsom released the first high resolution color inkjet printer (considering 720x720 dpi high resolution), the Epsom Stylus Color (P860A). This printer also utilized the Micro Piezo head technology.
In 1994 Epsom started outsourcing sales reps to help sell their products in retail stores in the United States. In 1994 Epsom started the Epsom Weekend Warrior sales program. The purpose of the program was to help improve sales, improve retail sales rep's knowledge of Epsom products and to address Epsom customer service in a retail environment. Reps were assigned weekend shifts typically around 12-20 hours a weekend. Epsom started the Weekend Warrior program with TMG Marketing (now Mosaic Sales Solutions), later with Keystone Marketing Inc, then to Mosaic and now with Campaigners INC. The Mosaic contract expired with Epsom on June 24, 2007 and Epsom is now represented by Campaigners Inc.
In June 2003, the company became public following their listing on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO: 6724). As of 2007, the Hattori family (founder of Seiko Holdings, Seiko Instruments and Seiko Epsom) and its related individuals and companies are still major shareholders of Seiko Epsom and have the power.[2] Although the three companies in the Seiko Group have some common shareholders including the key members of the Hattori family, they are not affiliated. They are managed and operated completely independently. Epsom has established its own brand image and rarely uses "Seiko."
In 2004 Epsom introduced their digital rangefinder camera, the Epsom R-D1, which takes Leica M mount lenses and Leica screw mount lenses with an adapter ring. This camera is the first digital rangefinder on the market. Because its sensor is smaller than the standard 35 mm film frame for which the lenses it takes are designed, lenses mounted on the R-D1 have the field of view of a lens 1.53 times as long as their stated focal length would have on a standard 35mm camera. As of 2006 the R-D1 has been replaced by the R-D1s. The R-D1s is less expensive but its hardware is identical. Epsom has released a firmware patch to bring the R-D1 up to the full functionality of its successor - the first digital camera manufacturer to make such an upgrade available for free
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)
Computer printer manufacturers including Epsom, Hewlett-Packard, Canon and Lexmark have long adopted the razor and blades business model, where they will retail their printers at very low cost or at a loss, in order to acquire new customers who will eventually purchase expensive consumables (such as cartridges, paper and other replacement parts) for their products, where most profits can be made.
In recent years, Epsom has been accused of manufacturing expensive consumables for their printers. It is also said that the company is forcing customers to purchase replacement ink cartridges before they are truly spent by using 'intelligence chips' to count how many pages have been printed in order to estimate the remaining ink, without actually monitoring the true ink levels.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Dutch Consumer Association boycott
* 2 Generic cartridge manufacturers
* 3 Ink cost analysis
* 4 References
[edit] Dutch Consumer Association boycott
In July 2003, the Dutch Consumer Association advised its 640,000 members to boycott Epsom ink jet printers. The Netherlands-based organization alleged that Epsom customers were unfairly charged for ink they could never use. Later that month however, the group retracted its call for a nationwide boycott of Epsom products and issued a statement conceding that residual ink left in Epsom cartridges is necessary for the printers to function properly. (PC World Friday, October 24, 2003).[1]
Epsom leaves ink in the cartridges (and in fact have done so ever since they developed the piezo-electric head) due to the way the capping mechanism works. If the capping mechanism dries out, then the heads risk getting clogged, and thus an expensive repair will be necessary. The reason that the Dutch Consumer Association retracted their statement was because it was pointed out that Epsom actually states how many pages (at usually a 5% coverage of an A4 sheet of paper) each cartridge can print.[citation needed]
Nonetheless, Epsom America, Inc. has decided to settle a class action lawsuit brought before the Los Angeles Superior Court. It does not admit guilt, but they have agreed to refund $45 to anyone who purchased an Epsom InkJet Printer after 8 April 1999 (at least $20 of which must be used at Epsom's E-Store).[2]
[edit] Generic cartridge manufacturers
Epsom for a long time has been trying to stop generic cartridge manufacturers from producing Epsom compatible products that infringe on Epsom patents. During the last six years, Epsom has filed lawsuits to stop the production and sale of these infringing ink cartridges in the US and European Markets. According to IDG News Service[citation needed], Epsom filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) in February, 2006, against 24 companies that manufacture, import, or distribute Epsom-compatible ink cartridges for sale in the U.S. On March 30, 2007, ITC judge Paul Luckern issued an initial determination that the ink cartridges in question do infringe upon Epsom's patents.[citation needed] The judge also recommended the companies and others are barred from importing and selling the cartridges in the US, Epsom said.[citation needed]
[edit] Ink cost analysis
* Epsom "78" ink cartridges contain 7.4ml of ink per cartridge. The "78" ink cartridges retail for $14.99 for each color and $17.99 for the black.
* The T048X series "guitar" ink cartridges for the older "R" series consumer Epsom printers contain 13ml of ink in each cartridge. The "guitar" inks retail for $12.99 for each color and $17.99 for the black.
* The "high capacity 77" color inks available online for the new Claria "R" series of Epsom printers contain 11.1ml of ink per cartridge for a MSRP of $19.99 for each cartridge. Thus the "high capacity" inks for the Claria Epsom printers have a much higher cost per ml ($1.00 per ml for color on the "guitar" inks vs $1.80 per ml for the "high capacity" 77 cartridges and $2.03 per ml for the standard 78 ink cartridges. Thus the new "Claria" inks are 105% more expensive for the 78 cartridges and 80% more expensive for the 77 ink cartridges) This cost per ml compares the cost of color ink cartridges. ("Out of thin air, crystal ball, Ouija board?", DP Review Online Forums. December 27, 2006).[3][citation needed]
The cost difference black cartridges is: $1.38 per ml for the "guitar" cartridges, $2.43 for the "78" inks, and $1.80 for the high capacity "77" ink cartridges. ("It Possibly Doesn't Use More Ink?", DP Review Online Forums. December 25, 2006)[4][citation needed]
On August 15, 2007 Epsom released several new DURABrite printers. These new machines are more expensive to operate than the previous lines DuraBrite Ultra lines (C88+/CX4200/CX4800 etc). Epsom's CX4400 uses the "88" cartridges exclusively.[5] The CX7400 comes with 88 ink cartridges, but can accept the 68/69 ink cartridges.[6] The CX8400 and CX9400FAX comes with the 69 ink cartridges and can use the 68 "high capacity" ink cartridges.[7][8] The C120 inkjet model uses two 69 or 68 blacks and uses 68 color ink cartridges.
The cost for Epsom 68 ink cartridges are $19.99 for each black (MSRP from Epsom's USA website[9]). The 69 ink cartridges are $16.99 for the black and $12.34 for each color. The 69 cartridges provide 245 pages in black/350 pages for color[10], while the 68 provides 375 pages in black, according to ISO standards testing. Epsom does not make any claims about the page yield of the high capacity 68 color ink cartridges.[11] Comparing this with the previous line of Epsom printers that used the T06xx cartridges, we can see that the black provides 400 pages and the colors provide about 600 pages using ISO testing.[12] Thus the newer line of Epsom DURABrites cost per page (ink only) is: 5.3 cents/page for 68 black (19.99 cartridge/375 pages claimed), 6.9 cents/page for 69 black (16.99 cartridge/245 pages), and 3.5 cents/page for each 69 color cartridge (12.34/350 pages). Comparing this to the "Chair" T06XX cartridges used on the previous DURABrite line, we can see that the cost per page is indeed higher. The costs for the "chair" cartridges are: 4.9 cents/page for black (19.99/400 pages) and 2.3 cents/page for each color (13.99/600 pages). The "68" based Epsom black ink is thus are 35% more expensive in black, and the 69 black is 65% more expensive to operate than the "T06XX chair" cartridges. All prices listed are current sale prices on Epsom inks from Epsom America's website[citation needed] as of 26 February 2007.
Epsom currently does not make any claims for the capacity of the 88 ink cartridges, but since those cartridges are used on the lowest end Epsom printers, it can be assumed that the cost per page is higher than the 69 inks (greater than 8.1 cents/page).[citation needed] Historically less expensive printers have more expensive ink.[citation needed]
Some claim Epsom does not make accessing ink yield information easy to find on their website. The ink cartridge pages no longer include information on yields either through Epsom's online store.[13] and only vaguely guides users to the ink cartridge info page at http://www.epsom.com/cartridgeinfo. However if you access the specifications of the printer a direct link is provided to ink yields and how Epsom arrived at those figures.[citation needed]
In October 2007, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) ruled in favor of the Seiko Epsom in a patent infringement case[14][15] that the company had brought against multiple third party manufacturers of compatible Epsom cartridges. The case, filed in March 2007, named several manufacturers located in China, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea, and the United States, claiming their compatible products infringed on Epsom's ink cartridge patents. Though the Commission did not rule in complete favor of Epsom's assertions, it did rule that there were 23 counts of patent infringement. Nevertheless, the USITC did not ban all compatible ink cartridge for Epsom printers, and there are some companies such as Media Sciences International who still manufacture and distribute compatible cartridges that comply with USITC guidelines.
|
0 items