Epson is one of the world's largest manufacturers of inkjet, dot-matrix and laser printers, scanners, desktop computers, business, multimedia and home theatre projectors, point of sale docket printers and cash registers, laptops, integrated circuits, LCD components and other associated electronic components. Based in Japan, they have numerous subsidiaries in the USA [1], Canada [2], Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela [3], United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Ireland, Turkey [4], China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia [5], Australia [6] and New Zealand [7].

History

In 1961 Shinshu Seiki Co. (now known as Epson), Ltd was established to supply precision watch parts to Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd. (now known as Seiko Instruments, Inc). When Suwa Seikosha 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 Co. started development of an electronic printer. In September 1968, the company launched the world's first miniprinter, the EP-101, which was soon incorporated into many calculators. In June 1975, the name Epson 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 "Epson"). In April of the same year Epson America Inc. was established to sell printers for Sinshu Seiki Co.

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, despite the fact that it could only print text characters and symbols.

In July 1982, the company officially named itself Epson Corporation and launched the world's first handheld computer, the HC-20 (HX-20), and in May 1983 the world's first portable color LCD TV was developed and launched by the company.

In November 1985, Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd. and Epson Corporation merged to form Seiko Epson Corporation.

External link

• Epson worldwide
• Epson Milestones