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RSS feedsThey are everywhere you go, underpinning the whole concept of client and workgroup computing, yet we seldom give them a second thought.
We're talking about imaging technology: monitors, scanners and printers that allow users to create, view and reproduce digital data in analog form.
We can all be guilty of overlooking these anonymous devices. Without them the basic functions of communications and trading would be crippled, and the ability to store and display information accurately would be seriously compromised.
Yet the acquisitions of peripherals is an afterthought in many IT purchasing strategies, with decisions often governed by whether they come bundled with a desired PC or other IT system.
In this special report we look at the latest developments in imaging technology, and at the issues affecting users and manufacturers alike. We also examine what effects innovation and changes in corporate culture will have.
The three technologies we are focusing on with this special report have a common bond: we can easily take them for granted. The market for computer monitors is particularly illustrative of this.
While they are regularly purchased as a standalone item, the more significant volume purchases are made alongside that of desktop PCs. The bundling of displays with PCs often means that the choice of monitor is not considered in as much detail as the computer specification itself.
This is despite the monitor being the component on which so much depends; a desktop PC is useless without one. But the better the display, the more accurately it will represent colour and details, ensuring that the image on screen can convey accurately how something will appear on paper or in front of another user.
A good screen with a high refresh rate will also be more comfortable to look at, reducing eye strain and tiredness and boosting productivity among users.
The monitor concept has evolved to embrace both new technology and larger size. The boom in cathode ray tubes (CRTs), used in monitors and televisions, has ensured that component prices have fallen and manufacturing processes have been refined in the last decade.
Today's displays are of a greater quality and definition than ever before, while the cost savings gained from the proliferation of the technology has ensured that larger displays, comparable with a large domestic television for screen size, are now priced in the hundreds rather than the thousands of pounds.
Small is beautiful
While the trend in CRTs has been to get bigger and cheaper, other display technologies are focused on getting smaller to reduce footprints and conserve power.
Liquid crystal display (LCD) technology used for displays on laptop computers has translated well onto the desktop. Despite initial high pricing, widespread increases in flat panel manufacturing have also brought down prices, upped quality and helped to boost screen size, although beyond 15 inches these monitors are still priced in excess of their CRT counterparts.
The benefits of LCD monitors are enhanced definition and a small footprint. Because there is no tube, a 21-inch LCD monitor will take up just a few square inches of desk space, while an equivalent CRT display will have a footprint measured in square feet.
Plasma display technology is also reaching maturity but, despite providing the sharpest picture yet on very large displays, it still carries a weighty price tag, meaning that plasma is not yet cost-effective for use on every desktop in your organisation.
Scanning technology is enjoying a renaissance, as companies look to use it to reduce the mountains of paper in their office, saving money and freeing up space.
Traditionally, scanners were used to convert data, often pictures, from paper or photographs into electronic form. The internet gave scanner manufacturers a growth opportunity, only for digital cameras to appear and steal a march on them. These soon reached a price and resolution that made digital photography realistic, reducing the need for scanners in many instances.
Today, buoyed by cheap computer storage and higher resolution, scanners are being employed to convert paper documents either into graphics for archiving, or into workable text for manipulation and reuse. USB and FireWire, offering easier configuration and higher bandwidth, have superseded the parallel and SCSI interfaces used for connecting scanners to computers.
Many high-end scanners can also be networked, turning them into a company-wide resource rather than a localised device for an individual or workgroup.
Technologies adapted from printers and photocopiers mean scanners can handle multiple page documents, automating many of the processes normally requiring human intervention.
The print revolution
But it is in printing itself that we see the most significant change. Naturally, the quality of printed output has improved over the years, but the way in which we use printers is undergoing a major change.
Enterprise printers are moving beyond being just network resources, becoming internet appliances accessible by a company's users regardless of which office or part of the world they are in.
To this end, manufacturers have begun to web-enable their printers. Hewlett Packard (HP) has launched a series of monochrome and colour laser printers that can be accessed over the internet instead of through a direct connection to a PC.
"We are installing several thousand of these printers every month already," said HP's commercial hardcopy business manager Rolf Gerstner. He added that the companies buying these printers see e-services and web-enabled printing as a way to reduce IT costs. "Everybody right now is under efficiency pressures and the internet is the natural conduit to help those IT managers," he explained.
Once seen as too fragile, slow and expensive for use in a corporate environment, inkjet printers are slowly developing the features needed for business, such as duplex printing, big hoppers and network support.
"People want them, but aren't necessarily prepared to pay for them because they are so used to cheaper consumer products," said Tony Petford, director of marketing and business development at Epson UK.
The demand for colour is growing, and printing speeds and the cost per page of colour lasers is falling to the point where businesses can now consider them as an option alongside, or even instead of, traditional mono laser printers.
"At the end of the day people want to read things on paper until something better comes along," said Petford. For the time being at least, that "something better" has yet to change our approaches to either printing or document imaging.
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