There is an interesting series up at the walletpop (walletpop.com) website cover "25 things vanishing in America" and Saturday's article was Part 2, the Fax Machine.

Barbara Bertlein writes (abridged):

I can still remember the first time I saw a fax. Wow! Words could be transmitted over a phone line and printed out exactly on the other end. I couldn't wait to get one for my business with all the bells and whistles; color copier, computer friendly for integrating data bases, and group speed dial. I bought a top of the line fax for about $450, convinced that it would launch my business and keep the phone ringing.

....

I'm not alone. Fax machines are becoming obsolete as folks use e-mail, Blackberries, texting and other technology to communicate. The interlinking of e-mail, information, directories, etc., is so smooth that e-mail almost disappears as a separate function. In the next five years, more than half of all bills will be sent by e-mail as more and more companies move towards paperless systems.

I still have the fax machine gathering dust. The ink cartridges are empty and it is detached from the computer. When it dies completely, I will put it out at the curb.

You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/04/11/25-things-vanishing-in-america-part-2-the-fax-machine/.

Many people have a very hi tech image of Japan, but when one first comes to Japan and starts working in a Japanese office, it can be very surprising how some things that one might think would have disappeared are still used - and one of those things is the humble fax machine.

The fax machine is still very much in use in Japan - for diverse uses from receiving and sending purchase orders to booking hotels. Basically anything requiring a signature, or Japanese name stamp. And the fax machine isn't going to go away soon.

We often get asked when we are designing a VoIP solution for a company what alternatives there are to using traditional analog lines for fax. Our answer is that it is possible to implement an IP based fax solution, we generally recommend continuing to use an analog solution because it allows fax traffic to be separated from voice traffic and because the image quality tends to be higher.

There is a Digium fax solution that we are currently testing. Hopefully this will help to bring fax and voice traffic together onto the office PBX system more successfully.

While the fax might be dying in many industries in the United States, in Japan it is here to stay.