Quote:
Originally Posted by brecklundin
Ummm...a few examples off the top of my head are...
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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.
So, we are now up to two instances. And that's covering what, 20 years of technology? 30?
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.