I
was reminiscing the other day to no one in particular, just myself as I’m sometimes prone to do, about the year of color.
How many remember that year?
I can’t place it though. Was it 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002?
I seem to remember that every year for maybe a half dozen years or more was predicted to be the year of color by certain folks in the analyst community. I guess if you keep predicting it year after year, you’re eventually going to nail it.
Over time the predictions faded away like a thermal fax image and color pretty much came into its own, albeit over an extended period of time. Some may still argue that there was a breakthrough year for color and a breakthrough color product, but I’d be inclined to say, you’ll never be able to pin it down with any kind of certainty what that product was and what that year was. Certainly, there were color devices that made an impact but they didn’t leave a huge crater.
When you read about the document imaging industry, or write about it in my case, predictions like “the year of color” always make for a good read or good copy. The reality is we’re now living in a world where the majority of devices sold are color even if no one company, event, or development could lay claim to that being responsible for that infamous and elusive year of color. Just like it’s difficult to pinpoint who invented television where there were many different players. So too has it been with color in the document imaging world. Yes, there were leaders and innovators, but it was more of a cumulative effort on the part of the leaders and the followers who have brought us to where we are today—a world where color is commonplace and no longer somewhere over the rainbow.
Thanks for reading.
