In my The Times They Are A-changin’ post, I passed on the news that the last pager service in Japan was quitting operations. The BBC picked up the same news and decided to look at obsolete technology that is refusing to die.
First they looked at pagers and reported that although Japan has abandoned the technology, other countries still rely on them. As Johnathan Mantey suggested in a comment to my post, one of the largest users is the medical sector, especially hospitals. The BBC says that the UK’s National Health Service alone accounts for 10% of worldwide pager use and that 80 percent of UK hospitals still use them. Nevertheless, the NHS plans to phase them out by 2021.
Next up is checks. Although once ubiquitous, checks are mostly obsolete. The BBC says that the average US household (as of 2015) writes about 7 checks a month. That mirrors my own use almost exactly. Virtually every check we write is to one of two small shops that refuse to take credit cards. A number of countries have already done away with checks but they keep limping along in the US and UK.
Most surprising of all, tape cassettes for music not only haven’t died a well deserved death but are actually making a comeback. That’s surprising because their sound quality is terrible, they’re always breaking, and you need a dedicated device to play them. I blame their zombie-like refusal to die on hipsters and others who value trendiness over function.
Finally, there’s the fax machine. Ten years ago, Dilbert was already making fun of the idea of anyone using a fax machine but it’s another technology that refuses to die. Again, the UK’s NHS is a major enabler. They are the world’s largest buyer of fax machines and were recently prohibited from buying any more and told to phase them out by 2020. As hard as it is to believe, millions of faxes are sent everyday worldwide.
Take a look at the BBC article. It’s amusing and you’ll probably be surprised by all the technology that should be dead but just keeps lurching along.