When I was in grad school starting in 1988, The department bought a “digitizer” which we now call a scanner. It would only reproduce in black and white. It cost $5000.00.
Just last week, I bought a combination scanner and printer for $19.00 at Walmart. It was a Canon and included both a color and b&w cartridge.
It scans far, far better than that $5000.00 one. Colors plus much more detail.
The guy in the Wedding Singer bought the new invention called a CD player for $700 but it had great sound.
But I’m the opposite, a late adopter. I have a landline phone and add minutes to a Tracfone to avoid the cellphones. I use the save money to buy printed books and magazines.
In the Army Security Agency we used cryptology among other things. There is a cryptology museum at Ft. Meade, MD. Early computers were used in cryptology. There is a 6 ton computer on display there. The attached placcard says, “The smart phone in your pocket is a far more powerful computer than this one which weighs 6 tons”.
Oh yes, but printer cartridges at Walmart cost $5000.00 for Black & White, and $6000.00 for a Color cartridge.
And they only last a month.
So you see, 30 years later, the print catridge costs the same as that old $5000 scanner.
Nothing changes. lol