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Tokyo-headquartered Seiko Epson Corporation is in the throes of a brand
repositioning exercise that projects Epson as an imaging company. In an effort
to take the initiative further, earlier this year, in April 2005, the company
restated its mission statement as 'Exceed your vision'.
"Delivering more than customer expectation is what we focus on,"
said Toshio Kimura, Executive VP and CFO, Seiko Epson Corporation at the Epson
Business and Technology Forum-2005 in Hong Kong. The forum was organized to
showcase the future technologies and applications that will drive it to a
cross-section of media representatives from across South East Asia.
Talking at the forum, Toshio delineated the 3i strategy Epson embarked upon
last year. He said the company would expand portfolio and reach in three product
domains – printers, projectors and displays and has lined up plans up to year
2007.
Giving an idea of the products one can expect Epson announced that it has
developed the world's first flexible TFT-SRAM (16kbit). The company expects it
to be adopted in the near future as a key component for small, light and
flexible devices. An ultra-thin Electro Phoretic Display (EPD) watch that can be
worn like a wrap-around on the wrist was on display, and is slated to be
commercialized by Epson holding company Seiko. Flexible wall displays, smart
cards, RFID tags were some
of the other devices on showcase encasing the theme light, compact and flexible.
According to Toshio, broadband and digitalization are driving this market.
With a boom in digital content happening, the company sees a big opportunity in
digital TV printing. It is taking digital TV printing a step further by
suggesting a business model that enables the consumers to print out information
from TV as and when they want. This involves the complexity of bringing the
broadcaster, TV companies and advertisers together besides the task of setting
the global standards platform for digital TV printing is yet to be finished.
"But is it not a long time away," said Seiichi Hirano, Director and
Chief Executive of the Imaging & Information Products Operation Division,
Seiko Epson Corp. He estimated a time frame of two years to get it off-ground.
The company has already developed the PM-D 1000 TV printer and launched it in
Japan, last year. This product allows users to hook up their digital cameras to
the TV and print out pictures that appear on the screen.
Epson has also developed Ultra Chrome K3 ink that has improvements such as a
wider color gamut, improved black density, gradation in dark areas and longer
life that can preserve the photo quality for 80 years.
NANDITA SINGH
(The writer was hosted in Hong Kong by Epson)
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