A lot of the existing, grass-root fax machines you are talking about
won't/cannot upgrade to get Internet connection. They are there just to
deal with POTS.
Now for an organization who has or will buy a decent printer attached to
a decent server, with an internet connection, it will be very attracrive
not to have to also buy a high-end fax hardware. They print solution can
let them send/receive hard copy docs to/from the electronic-aware
outside world (of course grandma is not included here). So at least the
need for high-end fax hardware seems to be eroding, but of course not
right away. I see that over time, as more users get hooked to Interent,
they will be as well equipped to print over Interent, as they are to
send fax. Except that their fax calls are MUCH more expensive, and the
quality is far worse. Which one do you think they will pick?
Babak
>----------
>From: raylutz at cognisys.com[SMTP:raylutz at cognisys.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 1996 9:22 PM
>To: Babak Jahromi; 'ietf-fax at imc.org'
>Subject: RE: Internet and Fax Interoperabilty: Big Picture
>>Please don't ignore the installed base of fax devices that are not internet
>connected. These will not go away soon, and they are useful to interoperate
>with. I don't know the exact statistics, but I'd be willing to bet the
>number of businesses with fax devices is upwards of 95%. Those with email is
>maybe 30% world-wide. (I'm only guessing). I think you get my point though.
>>Will the paradigm of scan-here, print-there go away. I doubt it.
>-Raymond
>