In 1843, when Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented fax transmission, little did he know that 160 years down, despite the colossal growth in technology, it would still be around as a communication tool used by people all over the world.
In 1843, when Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented fax transmission, little did he know that 160 years down, despite the colossal growth in technology, it would still be around as a communication tool used by people all over the world.
In fact, the fax machine plays a surprisingly central role in Japanese business. With nearly 100 percent of all companies and 60 percent of private households having a fax machine (according to the Washington Post).
Why has the fax machine refused to die out? Here are a few good reasons.
1) Simplicity
Sending a fax from a fax machine is as simple as feeding the document into machine, keying in the fax number of the other party. A 2 step procedure that even a 10-year-old can manage
2) Legal Binding
The nature of the fax protocol accurately reproduces documents between 2 remote points and that no third party can reasonably intercept the transmission to make changes to the document, thus meeting legal requirements of custodianship
3) Assured Delivery
Unlike emails and mobile texting, with faxes, the receiving machine must acknowledge the receipt of the document which serves as proof that a document has been successfully delivered
4) Ease of integration
With softwares like XMediusFax, fax servers can be integrated with office messaging environments including Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino. Even legacy systems may also interface with fax servers through protocols such as SMTP.
With everything digitized in our modern world, maybe the screech of an incoming fax on a fax machine, standing alone amongst glitzy iPads and 3D printers, would perk up that office worker and remind him of how far technology has brought us and how old ones can still be reliable.