Epson caps off the year in stellar fashion, reporting better performance in its key business areas, namely printing and visual, while new ventures of robotics and wearables showing promising growth.
Celebrating three and half decade in Southeast Asia and establishing as a visionary technology company, Epson is all geared for the future. During its 35th anniversary celebration in Singapore, President Minoru Usui attributed the strong growth to the company’s strategic shift in business focus towards the B2B segment.
Armed with wealth of knowledge in various technology eco-system, Epson is making use of its know-how in printing, visual and assembly of micro components, to expand into enterprise inkjet printers, commercial projectors, wearables and robotics.
Areas Of Innovation
Epson’s product innovation on its inkjet printers with the InkTank technology shows off the company’s research and development prowess. Case in point: over 20 million InkTank printers have been shipped so far; its InkTank business in Southeast Asia grew 13% over the last two years. The company now looks to expand its business model from consumer to the less volatile enterprise segment, a sector untapped.
Offering exceptional low operating cost and high-volume printing, its WorkForce Enterprise A3 printer targets medium and large businesses – a new area of expansion for Epson. While many choose to enter a new business segment through merger and acquisition, Epson prides itself for building its own products from scratch. The WorkForce Enterprise A3 printer is built on its proven Precision Core linehead technology, where it can now achieve breakthrough printing speeds of up to 100 pages per minute (ppm), one of the fastest speeds in inkjet printing.
In wearables, Epson introduces the latest generation of Moverio smart glasses – the BT-350 and BT-2200 – which found a purpose in the commercial and industrial environments. For instance, the BT-350 can be used in museums and tourism where a user can walk up to an exhibition and have an augmented guide explain on the screen. The industrial grade BT-2200 can be fitted over helmets is suited enterprise AR applications such as remote technical assistance.
As for robotics, it is undeniable that the new buzzword in manufacturing is Industrial 4.0. The use of advance technology is taking place, where factories around the world look to enhance work floors with robotics and autonomous manufacturing with the advent of Internet of Things.
A pioneer in Scara robots, Epson also unveils its comprehensive line-up in robotics – suited for precision level assembly requirements for electronics and smart devices. The compact and versatile entry-level model is ideal for simple pick-and-place applications such as assembly, inspection and feeding tasks. In the future, we could even see robots that can see, sense, think and work like humans.
Future Ready
A remarkable transformation from being a mere brand known in consumer printing and home projector business a decade ago, to a well recognised player in business-to-business segment with its revolutionary InkTank technology and commercial projectors. Epson has set in place strategies and opened up avenues with new line-ups that will position the company for future growth.
Celebrating three and half decade in Southeast Asia and establishing as a visionary technology company, Epson is all geared for the future…as one of the guest remarked ” Epson is celebrating 35 years and has been our best partner with their exemplary products and innovation, today we hear about robotics and wearables, this shows the company’s vision for the future and we are proud to be part of all this”. A testament to the once watchmaking Japanese company has gotten its timing right, again!
