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Desktop Scanners

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PCQ Bureau
New Update
Year Winner
2000 HP
1999 HP
1998 HP
1997 HP
1996 HP
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The high point in this category this year was undoubtedly the

prices. Scanner prices dropped considerably and became affordable even for home

users. USB, which had already made its debut, seems to have come of age this

year. HP, Epson, Umax, Canon–all have USB scanners in their product range,

along with parallel port ones. So, ease of use is leading the way in scanners,

with USB’s true plug-n-play and hot-swap capabilities, compared to the earlier

SCSI scanners and then the parallel port ones. Some scanners also come with two

potions for connectivity. For instance, the Umax Astra 2200 lets you connect it

to the USB port or a SCSI card.

Desktop Scanners

User's Choice Club  UPI
HP 100
Umax 24

A winner for the past five years, HP scored this year too,

emerging the winner by a wide margin. It’ll take more than USB for other

contenders to put a dent in HP’s score. Umax has also maintained its second

position, but its UPI slipped by a few points from 31 last year to 24 this year.

However, it seems to have created a brand image for its Astra series of

scanners, as some respondents gave this name instead of Umax as their choice.

These two seem to enjoy the highest mindshare, though there are many other

players in the market. Epson has its Perfection range of scanners, but hasn’t

made much of a mark on users yet. Microtek had gained a lot of popularity with

its CIS range of scanners when they were launched, and a lot of debate had

followed over CCD vs CIS scanners. This year, there’s hardly been any buzz in

the arena.

HP enjoys the lead in the current usage of scanners as well,

followed by Umax. Among all regions, the southern region has expressed a huge

interest in buying HP scanners. Last year, HP enjoyed equal support from all

regions.

HP has a strong hold on the scanner market. It would require

a killer marketing effort by others to catch up with HP’s lead. Quality has

been the prime criterion for selecting scanners this year, which is easy to

understand as that’s its prime function. Will there be more nominees next

year? That will have to be scanned.

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