Copiers - Analog Or Digital?

With digital technology growing, will there still be a demand for analog black-and-white copiers in the future? It depends on whom you ask.

• Dennis Amorosano, Canon: "Surprisingly, there is a demand for analog machines. Much of the demand is due to price. The cost of analog is significantly less. A lot of customers don't have applications that justify digital, Internet-capable machines. For black-and-white copying only, you don't need to buy into digital. Analog will be around for all of these reasons, but mainly the due to the price."

• Steve Pearl, Minolta: "There's still a demand for analog black-and-white because some businesses need a system that only copies documents. Their applications don't require digital capabilities, so they buy analog."

• Kevin Kern, Konica: "The only advantage to analog is if you already own one: They're pretty inexpensive to maintain. But analog systems don't really fit into the new business process. Today, you have to be digital to compete."

• David Schumaker, Océ: "There is definitely a demand for analog black-and-white systems. Black-and-white is the most cost-effective for basic page printing and reports. However, there is a decline in overall copying due to the Internet, e-mail and electronic document creation in general. Although analog will decline, digital printing is expected to increase by 40 percent over the next several years."

• Russell Marchetta, Ricoh: "The benefits of digital technology far outweigh those of analog, so there is little demand for analog black-and-white copiers."