The HP LaserJet is 25 years old this year.
The HP LaserJet desktop printer was a game-changer the moment it debuted in Atlanta at Spring Comdex 1984, then the computing industry’s premier trade conference, now but a memory. Since then the LaserJet line has accounted for more than 100 million unit sales … and earned itself a spot on the Hollywood walk of infamy.
HP this week marked the LaserJet’s 25th anniversary with a celebration at the company’s facility in Boise, Idaho, where the original was assembled.
The LaserJet was such a watershed technology that it is difficult to imagine (for those who weren’t there) what computing and printing was like in the years before laser printers became available. Dot-matrix printers were considered high tech (compared to mainframe line and chain printers), and daisy wheel printers were the only way to get really pretty text, albeit without any pictures or lines.
HP didn’t invent the devices, but it was the first to popularize them at a low, affordable price. As reported at the time:
At Comdex, HP also introduced another revolutionary printer, dubbed the LaserJet. Eight times faster than a typical daisywheel printer, the LaserJet brings laser technology to offices and small business at a list price of $3,495.
The machine can reproduce eight pages per minute, while maintaining print quality nearly indistinguishable from copy produced on an electronic typewriter.
Graphics resolution of the LaserJet can provide nearly typeset quality, with 300 X 300 dots per inch.
The LaserJet is more easily compared to a copy machine than to other computer printers. In fact, it makes use of a disposable electro-photographic cartridge OEMed from Canon, which is actually an off-the-shelf copy machine component. Each cartridge is good for approximately 3000 pages of printing and costs $100.
Oooooh. Aaaaaah.
Happy Birthday, LaserJet.
(via Tim)