Lowell Deeds

The business page of today’s paper carries a story about a disappointing quarter at Xerox as the world-wide leader tries to keep pace with an industry that has largely left the traditional black and white photocopiers behind in favor of document imaging. This registry is a good example of that transition. Ten years ago, photocopiers were essential equipment here since so few of our documents available as electronic images. Today, almost everything is available, not only electronically, but also available 24 hours per day over the Internet at no charge. This transformation is like one that was just ending ten years ago and that was the movement from typewriters to computers and laser printers. Back then, nearly every office had at least one IBM Selectric typewriter in use for completing forms and for important documents (in lieu of affordable, but relatively poor print quality dot-matrix or daisy wheel printers). Today, I’m not sure where I could find a typewriter or why i would ever need one. Ten years from now, the same thing will probably be said for photocopiers.