A scanner was one of the first peripherals that I bought once I had gotten used to my PC way back in the early 90s. The scanner I got was a regular A4 and I thought it to be an absolutely brilliant device that made all my photographs digital. The scan quality was fairly substandard actually, but the sheer novelty of it was enough to compensate for its lack of performance.

After a decade, the scanner landscape has changed so considerably that they have all but disappeared. Perhaps, I’m being rather hasty. I think scanners as we know them (independent devices that occupy better part of the desk) are pretty much in the last leg of their lives for people in general. Graphic designers, artists and photography shops will continue to use them for sure, but by and large, we won’t have big, bulky standalone scanners anymore.

The reason being that most people don’t really have much need for scanners. Plus, the usage patterns and advancements in various technologies have changed so much over time that scanners just aren’t the ultimate copying accessories they once were.

The biggest reason people used to buy scanners was to scan photographs of their loved ones; this requirement has been more or less negated as digital cameras have given them the freedom to instantly click and send images without waiting for the element to start-up before scanning the desired subject.

The second reason why people required scanners was to OCR documents or to store documents in digital format. This requirement has been altered as well, as the process of document storing has largely reversed. Instead of scanning the hard copies into a digital format, we have progressed to a world where we first make the digital copies and then print them as hard copies, thereby eliminating the need to scan them back in.

Having said that, there are still a lot of documents out there that people want to scan in or OCR for a variety of reasons. It’s these users who will probably fuel whatever life is left in this product.

Most of the scanners will now be either handhelds or the slim flatbed variety (similar to the reduction of various peripherals) that you can move over, use quickly and be done with it.

The other group that would really have a need for specialized scanners are as mentioned: graphic designers and artists who need to scan their sketches and caricatures to be sent across for approval. And even these people are increasingly using electronic devices such as light pens and tablets to accomplish their work, as it’s far more productive to erase in Photoshop than it is on an easel.

Even offices prefer to go for MFDs instead of plain old scanners, which is driving another aspect that’s driving down sales for scanner manufacturers.

All of the above has contributed to many scanner manufacturers pulling out of the market and investing more resources in MFDs or something similar. Therefore, it’s a safe assumption that scanners in particular are nearly finished, but the technologies behind them will continue to exist in one form or another.