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Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Dedicated word processors, yes. PDA's, yes and already mentioned. Print/scan/fax has not replaced dedicated machines by any stretch of the imagination; while Palm has completely dropped PDA's, for example, HP still sells dozens of printers (ranging from small printers to medium-sized lasers to photo printers to large-format plotters), Brother still sells close to a dozen fax machine models, Epson has numerous dedicated scanners, and so forth.
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Replaced in installed base? No-most of the installed base is still single-function devices. Replaced in what's available? No, you can still buy a wide range of single-function devices. Replaced in what's actually selling? At the consumer level, yes. It's becoming difficult to tell, what with many single-purpose printers being bundled with computers, but based on what's selling as separate purchases, the multi-function devices are far more popular. At the consumer level.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
The premise that "multifunction devices always supplant focused ones, to the point of the cessation of the focused device," simply does not have much historic merit or precedence. It can happen, and has happened, but it certainly doesn't happen 100% of the time. And since a few critical advantages of epaper will be lost with tablets (battery life, weight, readability, no distractions etc), even if tablets go into wide use it's unlikely that epaper-type devices will completely disappear any time soon.
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And that is pretty definitely true. They might (or might not) disappear from stores, but they almost certainly won't disappear as in not being made any more. Not even the 'dedicated word processor' has disappeared yet, except at the home/consumer level. Every shipping office I've seen has at least one they keep around to complete those pre-printed forms. (But pre-printed forms themselves are being replaced by online forms. That's probably why the only place I see typewriters any more are in shipping offices.)