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A Little Nikon History
from Wikipedia
Nikon Corporation was established in 1917 when
three leading optical manufacturers merged to form a comprehensive,
fully integrated optical company known as Nippon Kogaku Kokyo K.K.
Over the next 60 years this growing company became a leading
manufacturer of optical lenses and precision equipment used in
cameras, binoculars, microscopes and inspection equipment. During
World War II the company grew to 19 factories and 23,000 employees,
supplying items such as binoculars, lenses, bomb sights and
periscopes to the Japanese military. After the war it reverted to
its civilian product range with a single factory. In 1948, the first
camera with the Nikon brand was released, the Nikon I.
Nikon lenses were popularized by the American
photojournalist Douglas David Duncan's use at the time of the Korean
War. Fitting Nikon optics to his Leica rangefinder cameras produced
high contrast negatives with very sharp resolution at the center
field.
Besides cameras, Nikon Corporation (Nikon) is
recognized as a world leader in development and manufacturing of
advanced optical and precision photolithography equipment. In 1980,
the first stepper, the NSR-1010G, was produced in Japan. Since then,
Nikon has introduced over 50 models of steppers and scanners for the
production of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays. Nikon
currently designs and manufactures precision equipment for use in
semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) fabrication,
inspection, and measurement. Nikon also designs and manufactures
visual imaging products including cameras; instruments such as
microscopes; and other products such as chemical mechanical
polishing (CMP) systems, binoculars, surveying instruments, eyewear,
sport optics, and optical measuring and inspection equipment.
In 1982, Nikon Precision Inc. (NPI) was
established in the United States. NPI is the North American sales
and service arm specifically for Nikon Corporation's semiconductor
photolithography equipment and is headquartered in Belmont,
California. Fueled by a rapidly growing customer base, the company
quickly expanded. In 1990, NPI opened its current headquarters and
the facility now includes corporate offices, a fully equipped
world-wide training center (WWTC), service operations, applications
engineering, technology engineering, quality and reliability
engineering, training, technical support, sales, and marketing for
Nikon equipment serving the wafer, photomask, flat panel display,
and thin-film magnetic head industries. Today, NPI is an industry
leader in supplying and supporting advanced photolithography
equipment used in the critical stages of semiconductor
manufacturing.
Nikon Corporation also has research and
development operations in the U.S. under Nikon Research Corporation
of America (NRCA), which directly supports R&D efforts of the
Precision Equipment Division in Kumagaya, Japan. By leveraging its
strong and long-standing customer relationships, global brand
recognition, and technological expertise, Nikon has positioned
themselves to maintain their market leadership through its emphasis
on leading-edge research and development and its ability to adapt
its products to meet its customers' rapidly changing needs. The
Nikon brand has recently slipped behind rival Canon in total sales.
Nikon, once the industry leader, has found itself playing catch up
to Canon, who was quicker to market with such innovations as image
stabilization and piezo-electric (ultra sonic motor) focusing.
Today, Nikon Group Companies total nearly 17,000
employees worldwide.
In January 2006, Nikon announced it would stop
making most of its film camera models and all of its large format
lenses, and focus on digital models.
In late 2007, Nikon introduced the newest product
in the Nikon Immersion Solution, the NSR-S610C, which uses a
proprietary technology that eliminates bubbles, watermarks, and
particles generated by immersion processing. This results in defect
levels to occur at a rate similar to dry scanners.
In an effort to curb a thriving "grey
market" for its cameras and lenses, Nikon established a wholly
owned subsidiary in India in September 2007, to handle India as well
as the Middle East markets (comprising Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran,
Bahrain, Israel, Oman, Qatar and the UAE). However the prices of the
products imported legally are still higher than "grey
markets" products.
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