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Epson bares home printing strategy
Just
as digital cameras have become viable alternatives to film-based
cameras, home-printed digital photos now rival the quality of
traditional silver-halide prints that commercial photo labs offer. And
it is this increasing popularity of home photo printing that Seiko
Epson Corp. intends to take advantage of with the continuous
improvements in its ink-jet printing technologies.In a meeting with
Asian journalists at Epson’s Hirooka plant in Nagano, Takao Mimura,
chief executive of Epson’s Ink-jet Printer & Photo Product
Operations Division, said the company will concentrate on the home
market with its color printing products and will begin to aggressively
promote color printing in the office.Currently, Epson holds the third
spot in the Asian multifunction ink-jet printer market with a 22
percent share, following HP (34 percent) and Canon (24 percent). In
Japan, however, the company commands more than half (54 percent) of the
local market, followed by Canon (41 percent) and HP (4 percent). “Our
target is to eventually be the No. 1 manufacturer of ink-jet printers
worldwide,” said Mimura.According to the Epson executive, the market
for multifunction ink-jet printers will continue to grow, fueled by
their increasing popularity over single-function ink-jet printers. The
multifunction printer (MFP) market, he said, is expected to grow at a
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40 percent from 2002 to
2007.Meanwhile, the market for traditional digital and analog
silver-halide printing has declined in the past three years as ink-jet
photo paper printing gained wide acceptance. Mimura told journalists
that Epson intends to take advantage of this trend by improving its
printing technologies which include the Micro Piezo print head,
high-quality and durable ink, and digital color and image processing.In
a survey conducted by the Info Trend Pro Photographer in 2003, 43
percent of the photographers polled preferred printing their digital
photos with Epson. Fujifilm, with 19 percent, came in a far second.Non-PC Printing
Explaining
Epson’s home printing strategy, Mimura said the company’s printing
technology has evolved from PC-centered solutions to non-PC solutions
such as direct printing from mobile phones and digital cameras that
have provisions for multimedia memory cards, Bluetooth transmission,
and Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.Mimura also boasted of
Epson’s new product category, the All-in-One Photo Printer that can
print photos directly from all sources such as film, USB drives, memory
cards, digital cameras, and mobile phones.Epson is also expanding the
types of content that can be printed off its printers. After PC-based
and photo contents, Epson is looking at the printing of public contents
that do not infringe on intellectual property rights. Public contents,
Mimura explained, could include TV broadcasts, online newspapers,
educational materials, Web-based photo albums, online educational
material, and catalogs. “Epson believes there will be a whole lot of
opportunities for printing public content,” he said. He added that
Epson is working with a Japanese TV station to develop printable
contents off the air such as TV commercials, recipes and other
pertinent information.Mimura said photo printers will eventually become
an indispensable appliance in living rooms and will be placed near the
digital television. “I believe Epson will open up a new era of digital
imaging,” he predicted.Printing Quality
“Home printing is
experiencing growing demand,” said Minoru Usui, director and deputy
chief executive of the I&I products operations division at
Epson.According to Usui, there are five components that contribute to
the quality of photo printouts: ink, ink-jet head, paper, printer
driver, and the ink cartridge.He disclosed that Epson develops and
manufactures its own ink that works best for Epson printers. The
company essentially uses two kinds of ink – pigment and dye. Usui said
pigment ink has excellent durability and produces laser-quality
printouts on plain paper and silver-halide quality prints on glossy
paper. Dye ink, on the other hand, is excellent for color reproduction
and is ideal for low-cost printers.”Using non-genuine ink may not
produce the best printing results,” said Usui, adding that mixing
non-genuine ink may cause serious problems such as clogged printer
nozzles, missing dots, poor colors, and poor durability.On the subject
of ink-jet heads, Usui said Epson’s Micro Piezo head ejects ink
droplets in a variety of sizes at high speed and performs exceptionally
with pigment inks. According to him, the thermal ink-jet head which HP
uses has a shorter head life and may damage inks.As for paper, Usui
said media quality greatly affects printing quality, adding that
Epson’s glossy paper offers much wider color representation than
ordinary photo paper.The printer driver, meanwhile, sets the size,
color and pattern of ink droplets for the printed image.Lastly, the ink
cartridge supplies accurate amounts of ink to the head by constant
pressure to produce flawless printouts. “The ink cartridge is not just
a box of ink. In fact, it is a sophisticated ink preservation and
delivery system,” said Usui. Epson’s ink cartridge, he explained, is
designed to keep ink uniform and free of contaminants to the last
drop.During a tour of Epson’s ink factory in Hirooka, Kiyohito Koke,
manager of the ink-jet printer marketing department, showed members of
the media the 10 processes in producing an ink cartridge. Journalists
were shown the “clean room” where the cartridges are assembled in a
very clean environment to ensure the ink does not get contaminated. The
ink cartridge also goes through a vacuum packaging process to remove
traces of dissolved air which could form bubbles in the printer nozzles
and cause missing dots.
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