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- <text id=90TT1999>
- <title>
- July 30, 1990: Business Notes:Typewriters
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 30, 1990 Mr. Germany
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 52
- Business Notes
- TYPEWRITERS
- Once High, Now Low
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Nearly 30 years ago, IBM revolutionized the office workplace
- when it introduced the Selectric electric typewriter. The
- premier symbol of the high-tech office of the future, the
- Selectric used plug-in cartridges, instead of messy ink
- ribbons, and replaced the sliding carriage and keys with a
- rotating typing golf ball. Since 1961, IBM has sold some 13
- million Selectrics, making it the best-selling machine in the
- company's 76-year history.
- </p>
- <p> Yesterday's high tech, though, is today's low tech. The
- Selectric lost much of its luster in recent years when
- secretaries switched to word processors and personal computers.
- As a result, IBM is putting its typewriter business on the
- auction block. The most prominently mentioned buyer: Clayton
- & Dubilier, an investment firm. Says Kenneth Camarro, an
- office-automation consultant: "IBM has read the writing on the
- wall." And the writing didn't come from a Selectric.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-