Business history of Epson printer

Epson is part of the Seiko Group, a worldwide conglomerate descended from a clock and watch trading company founded by Kintaro Hattori in 1881. It is a large multinational company that manufactures printers, scanners, multifunction printers, large format printers, cartridge, cameras, LCDs, chips, watches, and clocks, among other products.

Epson printers trace their ancestor back to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, when Seiko designed a device for timing athletic events. The company’s legendary engineer, Susumu Aizawa invented a quartz clock that also printed a record of the time.

After the Olympics, the printing device was initially marketed by Shinshu Seiki, a subsidiary of Suwa Seikosha, as a miniature printer mechanist, the EP-101, which help pave the way for development of pocket sized calculators and smaller, more compact cash registers.

In 1975, Epson America, Inc was formed with US headquarters in Long Beach, California. It entered the US armlet to supply original equipment manufacturer (OEM) components and peripherals to the computer and electronics market.

Four years later, as the personal computer market grew, a need developed for a competitively priced desktop printer for some consumers.

At that time, Epson introduced the MX-80. This successful and widely distributed printer became for many the de facto industry standard for serial impact dot matrix printers. In 2000, Epson introduced its first pigmented-ink printers: the Epson Stylus Pro 7500, 9500, Stylus Photo P2000 printers.
Business history of Epson printer