RIP: The Typewriter

Industry News

Godrej and Boyce, a company in India, was the last company on the planet that was still manufacturing typewriters. They've announced recently that they will be closing up shop, and with that, the last typewriter ever made - has been made.

"We are not getting many orders now," Milind Dukle, the company's manager, told The Daily Mail. "From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us. 'Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defense agencies, courts and government offices."

Godrej and Boyce was, at its peak, producing and selling tens of thousands of typewriters every year. It the early 1990s, it was still able to sell 50,000 machines, but in 2010, less than 20 years later, that yearly total dropped to fewer than 800.

Typewriter aficionados will be able to get their fix with old vintage machines at antique stores, but the world of communication has moved further into the digital age with this significant rite of passage.



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