The long decline of printers

Printers, like typewriters, film cameras, CRT monitors, will become history.  Its decline will be very long.  Printer manufacturers nowadays make all-in-one printers doing printing, scanning, faxing and copying. Fax will disappear before printers. The use of printing and copying will diminish.

With the use of multiple monitors, which are getting cheaper and cheaper, and the increasing use of electronic documents in lieu of hard copies, there is less and less to print and copy.  I finished incorporating a business dealing with two state governments and the federal government without any printing though I did use the S function - scanning - of my PSC printer.  Everything was done electronically. I recently completed a partner contract with a Swedish company without any printing. It has become easier to read documents on a computing device (e.g. a desktop PC, a tablet PC) than on paper.  Electronic documents are much more convenient to exchange than hard copies, and much more friendly to the environment.

We know the printer sales are declining.  The most telling number would be printer cartridge sales.  Unfortunately, printer manufacturers do not release this number. HP, which generates its most profit from their printing business, has started struggling, and is trying to restructure by shifting to service.

People will still need to print once in a while for a long time.  For such usage,  HP's Photosmart e-All-in-One seems to be a good choice per various reviews.