You may have thought it was time for typewriters to hang up their ribbons and bow out from the keyboard scene, but Smith Corona Corp and Lexmark International Inc keep them coming. Smith Corona, New Canaan, Connecticut has brought out what it claims is the first dual language portable electronic typewriter, which has both Spanish and English prompts, demos and dictionaries. Priced at $400, it is aimed at the growing number of Spanish speakers in the US, specifically in homes, schools and small offices. It has a 7,000-character memory and 24-character display, to view dual language prompts and edit copy before printing. Smith Corona also has five portable electronic typewriters under the Intelligently Quiet, or IQ, brand, priced from $240. The firm also announced seven personal word processors, the PWP Plus range, which have graphical opening screens, dual screen and database management capabilities. Meanwhile Lexmark, run from Stamford, Connecticut despite the fact that everything happens in Lexington, Kentucky, has nine new typewriters, somewhat defensively introduced by worldwide market manager Anne Bolton: The typewriter has a role in the office today… It is a complementary role. The Wheelwriter machines aim to stand alongside a personal computer and do the tiresome stuff, like forms completion, label typing and envelope addressing. Prices range between $700 and $1,845, unchanged since the last launch in 1988. The line starts with facilities like a 50,000-word spell checker and codes to personalise standard letters, and at the top end has 172Kb, or about 86 pages, of document storage, and scheduler, phone number and calculator functions.
