Paris---It may have slipped from its golden age into its golden years, but two decades into the Internet era the fax machine is still, perhaps surprisingly, holding its place in many offices.
While it has been reduced to a small player in the rapidly growing world of digital communications, "millions of people still use fax machines daily worldwide and probably will continue to do so in the near future", said Jonathan Coopersmith, an associate professor at Texas A&M University, who has written a book on the history of the once ubiquitous office machine.
Even more surprising, people and companies continue to buy new fax machines.
"Sales are dropping regularly due to emails, but the market is far from disappearing," said Nicolas Cintre, deputy director in France for Japanese company Brother, the market leader in fax machines.
Around 20 million fax terminals were sold in 2005, manufacturers estimate, while sales today are on the order of several million.
"The market is holding up. Those who predicted the death of the fax 10 years ago were wrong," said Cintre.
Part of the reason for the machine's survival is an attachment among "older generations" who spent most of their careers using it, he said.
"Some habits are hard to break."
It is considered by some as a tool for older employees reluctant to learn new technologies, but the fact that it embraces handwriting -- in particular signatures -- has also helped the fax avoid obsolescence.
"Fax machines allow sending signed documents, which are considered as originals, which isn't the case with email," said Jean Champagne, head of Sagemcom Canada, the unit of the communications equipment company that markets fax systems.
Coopersmith noted that "in most countries, faxing is concentrated in certain areas such as banking, real estate, legal communications and medicine -- where a written signature is necessary."
Regulations may in fact require faxing in some countries, he added.
Champagne also pointed out that faxes offer advantages in terms of confidentiality and security, another reason why the machines remain popular in the legal and medical fields.
"It is nearly impossible to intercept fax transmissions. Documents cannot be manipulated," he said.
AFP
