Epson sees hiked sales with new line of projectors

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Epson Philippines Corp. (EPC) sees a $12-billion increase in net sales by 2014 after unveiling a new line of projectors equipped with the latest technology called real-time automatic keystone correction.

“It is not an unrealistic target,” says Donna Ferro, general manager of the company’s marketing communication and customer support, referring to Epson’s sales forecast.

The leading manufacturer of printers and projectors recently incurred massive losses amounting to $192 million when its factories shut down due to the recent disasters that struck Japan and the flooding in Thailand, which aggravated supply problems.

“After this setback, we at Epson express confidence that the second half of 2012 will be better for us in terms of sales and manufacturing output,” adds Ferro.

Also, Epson will aggressively expand into other fields like textile, digital textile, microchip making and computer-aided designs through its semiconductor arms.

To attain its target growth rates, Epson aims to further strengthen operations, expand retail management and create more corporate enhancement programs.

“There will be an increase in market activity such as awareness programs on the full pipeline of printers, projectors, as well as large projectors. We will also continue to update our technology as well as design and develop more innovative applications,” she explains.

Epson also aims to focus on three brand policies in order to achieve the increase in net sales.

The three policies include beefing up the micropiezo print head technology of the L-series printers, which is the only low cost and high quality printer in the market; maintaining leadership as the world’s top projector brand; and creating more technologies for Epson’s semiconductor cluster.

“It is our president’s vision that everything must be printed using micropiezo,” Ferro explains.

Micropiezo technology uses “piezoelectronic” materials that mechanically push ink out of the print nozzles, unlike other printers that still use thermal ink.

This technology uses high pressure and low heat to accurately control the ink being expelled by varying the electrical charge.

This enables the print head to eject ink droplets in precisely controlled sizes. In turn, it makes Epson printers more economical in terms of ink usage.

For the past 10 years, Epson has been the leading maker of projectors.

“Yet we are not resting on our laurels. We will continue to create technologies to further cement our position as the world’s No. 1 maker of projectors,” Ferro says.

To back up her statement, Epson introduced its latest projector models with a new technology called real-time automatic keystone correction.

With this technology, the new projectors are able to automatically and instantly correct screen distortions and focus the projected image in real time—even if repositioned—no matter where they are placed during a presentation.

This feature eliminates setup time and ensures that the projected image is always a perfect rectangle.

The Epson EB-1700 series and EB-1900 series are built for those who are always on the go.

The EB-1700 is Epson’s slimmest and lightest projector model. It supports more file formats, enabling users to view PDF files and motion Jpeg movies directly from a flash drive, without needing to connect to a PC.

It is lightweight at 1.7 kg, and allows wireless projection of documents from Apple devices using the free iProjection application. It can also fit in an ordinary laptop bag. The projector is perfect for outdoor setups.

The Epson EB-1900 series features higher brightness than the preceding models, and includes a DisplayPort for direct connection to Mac computers, digital devices, as well as a DCDi [Directional Correlation Deinterlacing] Cinema video processing chip from cinema experts Faroudja, which enables it to render movies with excellent home theater quality.

The latest projectors will be available in the market this June.

The company, which traces its roots in Lake Suwa in Nagano, Japan, is celebrating its 70th anniversary. To mark this occasion, EPC has launched a new tag line, “Engineered for Business.”

Ferro says that this new tag line is meant to deliver the message that each product is designed to fulfill customer’s needs.

EPC remains committed to provide high-quality printouts at low cost.