Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
Xerox was worried about this in the 1970s and 1980s when they were inventing the technology that would drive Windows and Mac computers for the next 30 years and counting. It was dubbed the Paperless office and as a result, Xerox did not pursue the technology for fear that it would undermine their copying business. Anyone who lived before computers became necessary in business and after can tell you computers multiplied office paper use.
While, it is conceivable that tablets will replace some paper, I doubt that it will ever completely eliminate paper for business. Sometimes nothing substitutes for scribbling tons of notes when brainstorming ideas and then spreading them out next to each other to see what floats.... Giving each worker 5-6 tablets to do this sort of thing is probably impractical  .
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Bill |
Funny.....
I'm working for Xerox...
Our studies show, demand for paper in total even still is increasing.
But the demand structure permanently changes.
About 15 years ago, just-in-time had been a huge trend. Lots of manufacturers did incorporate digital print solutions into their supply line processes: No stock, no planning, 100% flexibility.
Back then, just-in-time/print-on-demand has been one of our main revenue sources.
This has changed drastically: Due to various reasons (due to just-in time, number of languages can be reduced; manufacturers have more efficient supply line processes; lots of documents aren't printed anymore (look at the documentation for iPads for example: 95% of it are on the unit itself as downloadable files, ...), this volume has declined by at least 60%.
But on the other hand, marketing material for example grows exponentially.
It's more than compensating the decrease in "direct material".
We don't link this directly to "classical reading" like we're talking about here in mobileread, as Xerox never has been very much into "book printing".
Xerox more than 15 years ago did focus differently. About 10 years ago, our slogan had been "Xerox, the document company". Never "the printing company".
Meaning: There "always" will be demand for documents. It even will be further increasing, for example due to new markets (= additional volume and languages). But not all of them will be printed. There are more and more alternatives, for example making files downloadable via the web.
BTW: Xerox did invent (in addition to thousands of other patents like Ethernet, laser printer or the computer mouse) the "electronic paper".