[Ads-l] Quote Origin: World Market for Copiers Will Never Exceed 5, 000 Units

[Stephen Goranson]

Easy come, easy go. My local library used to have many (maybe 10)
photocopiers. Now none; only scanners.

On Sat, Sep 19, 2026 at 4:37 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> The topic in the subject line is discussed in a new Quote Investigator
> article located here:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/19/market-copiers/
>
> [Begin acknowledgement]
> Great thanks to Dave Wilton whose comment led QI to formulate this
> question and perform this exploration. Wilton heard that the Battelle
> Memorial Institute performed a study that projected a very low demand
> for photocopiers.
> [End acknowledgement]
>
> Feedback welcome
> Garson
>
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2026 at 1:03 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Dave Wilton wrote:
> > > A variation on this that I heard in the 1980s (orally,
> > > so there is no written citation), is that it was the
> > >  Battelle Memorial Institute that did a study
> > > determining that there was a world market for
> > > only five photocopiers.
> >
> > Intriguing topic, Dave. I found evidence that the market for
> > photocopiers was severely underestimated. Here are some citations.
> > Note, the Haloid Company evolved into the Xerox Corporation.
> >
> > Date: 1971
> > Book Title: My Years with Xerox: The Billions Nobody Wanted
> > Author: John H. Dessauer
> > Chapter 3
> > Quote Page 89
> > Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Haloid was still sponsoring a series of market surveys, for which it
> > retained reputable New York firms. One of them, after questioning vast
> > numbers of businessmen, reported that we could not look forward to
> > placing more than five thousand copiers in American offices! It
> > presented all sorts of evidence to bolster its dire warning. If its
> > estimate was accurate, there was no hope whatever of recovering our
> > investment in xerography. We might as well forget producing a copier
> > and accept our loss.
> > [End excerpt]
>
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>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org