Xerox Wikipédia [updated] -

Haloid spent years refining Carlson’s invention. The key challenge was finding a better light-sensitive material; the solution was , which could hold an electrostatic charge and dissipate it when exposed to light. To brand this new process, Haloid coined the term "xerography" – from the Greek words xeros (dry) and graphein (writing). In 1949, they launched the first crude xerographic copier, Model A , but it was manual and messy.

With a near-monopoly on copiers (protected by over 500 patents), Xerox became a cash colossus. Revenue soared from $40 million in 1960 to over $1 billion in 1968. But success bred complacency in the core business. The leadership, focused on selling and leasing copiers, famously failed to see that the future was not about better copies, but about digital information. xerox wikipédia

While Xerox played in the high-end, slow-to-market workstation space, its core copier business was attacked from below. Japanese companies, led by , exploited a loophole. Xerox’s patents expired in the late 1970s. Canon introduced a radically different business model: the personal or desktop copier (e.g., Canon NP-200). Instead of leasing large, complex machines that required service technicians, Canon sold small, cheap, reliable copiers using a replaceable cartridge system (the "all-in-one" toner, drum, and developer unit). This shifted maintenance from a trained technician to the user. Haloid spent years refining Carlson’s invention

Xerox is the quintessential tale of . It is a parable of how success can breed myopia. The company invented the PC, the GUI, Ethernet, and the laser printer – the building blocks of the 21st-century office – and gave them away for free because they didn’t fit its existing business model of selling copies per page. It is a permanent case study in business schools about the "innovator’s dilemma": The very management practices that make a company dominant in its market make it nearly incapable of responding to disruptive change. In 1949, they launched the first crude xerographic

Today’s Xerox (ticker: XRX) is a shadow of its former self. It has a market capitalization of around $2-3 billion (compared to Microsoft or Apple’s trillions). The company focuses on three areas:

Then came the crisis. By late 2000, Xerox was hemorrhaging money. Its business model of leasing copiers (long-term revenue) required huge upfront capital. When sales slowed, it ran out of cash. Debt was downgraded to "junk" status. The stock price plummeted from $60 to under $4. There were serious doubts Xerox would survive.