The brand that invented the copier: Xerox

Xerox, a multinational technology company of US origin, has made great innovations in many areas from copiers to printers, from scanners to various computer hardware for more than a century. With the revolutions it has created in printing technologies, from the first xerographic image to automatic copiers and laser printers, Xerox has succeeded in producing practical solutions to many problems we encounter in document management in our education and business life. 

The birth of the Xerox brand dates back to 1906. Founded in Rochester, New York to manufacture photographic paper and equipment, the company was originally called Haloid Photographic Company. Focusing on xerographs that reproduce photos using the dry duplicator method, the company soon changed its name to Haloid Xerox. Its strongest rival was Kodak.

The company's first CEO, Joseph Wilson

Xerox was bought by Rochester businessman Gilbert E. Mosher for $50,000 in 1912. During the Mosher period, sales offices were opened in Boston and Chicago, and new products were focused on to develop market power. The new paper product Haloid Record, which was launched after years of work, saved the company from bankruptcy when the Great Depression shook all the markets. Moreover, it brought huge turnovers to the company. So much so that in 1934 the company's turnover exceeded 1 million dollars.

In 1935, the company decided to buy the Rectigraph Company, one of the important players in the industry, at the suggestion of Joseph R. Wilson, the son of its first CEO, Joseph Wilson (1909-1971). The company, which went public within a year to find the necessary money, reinforced its market power with Rectigraph. However, II. The recession during World War II had a negative impact on sales. High-quality photographic papers developed for reconnaissance forces during the war saved the company from bankruptcy.

Xerography Machine and Xerox

After the war, the company encountered new competitors in the paper market and entered into great competition. During this period, Mosher was considering divesting the company. However, Joseph R. Wilson opposed this decision and convinced Mosher that the company's competitiveness would increase with new products to be developed. And it happened as he said. The xerography machine, invented by Chester F. Carlson in 1938, would be a major turning point in the company's history. The xerography machine, whose name was created by combining the Greek word xeros meaning "dry" and the words "graphia" meaning "writing", used static electricity to copy images from one paper to another.

Carlson, who worked in a patent office in the USA, was making copies of some documents and pictures for patent applications. Taking photographs for this job was both very expensive and laborious. He developed a new method as a result of his efforts to find a faster and cheaper solution for copying documents and pictures. In this method, the document to be copied was placed on a special glass and a bright light was reflected on it. Thanks to the heat and light energy created, the powder inks in the toner adhered to the other paper to copy the document. Carlson's invention, which allows to copy images on paper to another paper quickly and easily, heralded great revolutions in printing technologies. Commercial rights to the xerograph were acquired by the company in 1947.

The Rise of the Xerox Brand

In 1947 the company contracted with the Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Ohio, to manufacture xerographs. The copier it launched two years later could copy images on paper in 45 seconds. The company's entry into the European market was established in 1956 by the British film company Rank Organization Plc. was made in partnership with The joint venture was called Rank Xerox. Copiers were met with great interest in the European market and increased the brand value of the company. Although the return of photographic products was higher in this period, the management, who thought that the future of the company was in copiers, changed the company name to Haloid Xerox Inc. in 1958. changed to. Then they entered the Asian and African markets after Europe.

One of the important turning points in the history of the company was experienced in 1959. The first automatic copier, the Xerox 914, was introduced to the public in a television show on September 16, 1959. A second revolution in printing technologies, these tools have made duplicating documents much faster and more affordable. These products, weighing 650 kilograms, were designed mostly for corporate companies and television was used effectively in the advertisements of the products. For small businesses, monthly rental of products has started and smaller models have been designed.

As a result of the interest in these products, the company changed its name once again in 1961 and its shares began to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange as Xerox Corporation. A year later, in half partnership with Fuji Photo Film, Fuji Xerox Co. company was established. In 1969 the corporate headquarters was moved to Stamford Connecticut. A year later, the Palo Alto Research Center in California began operations. With these steps, the company started to use the experience gained in the field of document management in the field of information technologies as well. The first laser printers he developed in 1977 and the invention of Ethernet, an office communication network in 1979, were very important turning points in the history of the brand.

Xerox in the World Market

The 1980s were the years when Xerox gained rapid momentum in the race for leadership in the world market. Successfully applying the revolutions it has created in printing technologies for printers and digital printing systems, the company has gained a great power in the world market by providing the necessary system support for computer hardware. The digital copiers he developed in the 1990s heralded a new era in document management and information technologies. Expanding its product range with multifunctional printers with copying, printing and scanning capabilities, the company acquired the shares of its European partner in Rank Xerox in 1997. Continuing its growth through acquisitions in line with the strategies developed by Ursula Burns, the company acquired XL Connect Solutions Inc. a year later. company, and in 2000 Tektronix Inc. consolidated its power in color printing and imaging technologies by acquiring the company.

In the 2000s, the company's market power continued to increase rapidly with new products. In fact, it launched 38 different products in the 2002-2003 period and forced the market power of its competitors. In 2003, it won the IEEE Corporate Innovation Award for its DocuTech product line, which digitally transfers and stores documents and drives the development of the print-on-demand (POD) industry. The erasable papers, for which he applied for a patent in 2006, protected the images on them for only 1 day and enabled the paper to be reused. Winner of the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2007, the company acquired Fujifilm in January 2018 for more than $6 billion.