Will the Fountain Pen Outlive Microsoft?

[duki92]

Well, not that he is right, but people will use less pens and paper and more phones/tablets/etc for writting. That is happening for a past few years and will continue. But it will never stop people from using the piece of paper and whatever pen to write quick note, groceries list or draw flower or car while on the phone.

Fountain pens IMO will survive and have a reneisance (as much as wet shaving is now having) as they will always be looked as some fine, precise instruments and more important as novelty. Don't think there will be great percent of users, but they'll survive for sure. And be even better.

 

[T.Orso]

Am I just a geezer? Ink on paper is nice. I am in control. The pen won't be incompatible or unsupported in three years.

I bought Windows 3.1 and a fountain pen around the same time. Which am I still using?

My company can buy me any jet pack they like, though.

 

[rdeakle]

Well, not that he is right, but people will use less pens and paper and more phones/tablets/etc for writting. That is happening for a past few years and will continue. But it will never stop people from using the piece of paper and whatever pen to write quick note, groceries list or draw flower or car while on the phone.

Fountain pens IMO will survive and have a reneisance (as much as wet shaving is now having) as they will always be looked as some fine, precise instruments and more important as novelty. Don't think there will be great percent of users, but they'll survive for sure. And be even better.

I agree with this to an extent. However, its my belief that if things keep going the way they are with the 'cyber attacks' and 'hackings' people will resort back to writing just to keep things private and out of the ready hands of people sitting in a basement with a computer, mountain dew and skittles. Now days, everything that is typed can be accessed by someone you don't want, whether it was sent or not. I think people will begin to realize that if they write it with pen and paper, its a lot less accessible to such attacks. Maybe I'm just living in a dreamland, but as they say, the old tricks work the best.

 

[smalldog27]

I agree with this to an extent. However, its my belief that if things keep going the way they are with the 'cyber attacks' and 'hackings' people will resort back to writing just to keep things private and out of the ready hands of people sitting in a basement with a computer, mountain dew and skittles. Now days, everything that is typed can be accessed by someone you don't want, whether it was sent or not. I think people will begin to realize that if they write it with pen and paper, its a lot less accessible to such attacks. Maybe I'm just living in a dreamland, but as they say, the old tricks work the best.

I finally convinced my wife of this. She spent some time trying to convince me that it was easier to keep everything on my phone, she gave up after realizing the pen (rollerball until recently) and paper were not going anywhere. Now she is carrying a notebook everywhere instead of relying on her phone as well.

 

[Kit Walker]

One thing to remember about Microsoft. It's founder originally believed that the market for personal computers was tiny -- about 2500 per year, IIRC. So don't hold them up as any great sages.

 

[Eeyore]

One thing to remember about Microsoft. It's founder originally believed that the market for personal computers was tiny -- about 2500 per year, IIRC. So don't hold them up as any great sages.

Many great men made predictions that sound laughable nowadays.

Max Born predicted in 1928 that a grand unifying nuclear theory would be found within the year. A great example of the wrong prediction at the wrong time; within a few years the whole existing atomic model was outdated!

 

[duki92]

I agree with this to an extent. However, its my belief that if things keep going the way they are with the 'cyber attacks' and 'hackings' people will resort back to writing just to keep things private and out of the ready hands of people sitting in a basement with a computer, mountain dew and skittles. Now days, everything that is typed can be accessed by someone you don't want, whether it was sent or not. I think people will begin to realize that if they write it with pen and paper, its a lot less accessible to such attacks. Maybe I'm just living in a dreamland, but as they say, the old tricks work the best.

Yes, you are right, security is important and that will help pens secure their position. However majority will still take things simple and won't care of it, look at Android users, "they" know everything from fingertips to time you went in bed and still that isn't stoping it be great majority in world.

 

[Snargle]

I wonder how many executives in the music and entertainment business predicted the demise of vinyl records? Just because someone works in an industry doesn't give them the power of prognostication.

 

[Montanan]

When a company is on top, it tends to somehow believe that it's always going to be on top, and of course that's never the case. In fact, the arrogance accelerates their downfall, because they feel less of a need to be responsive to customer desires. That's Microsoft's story in a nutshell ... and I honestly think that because of that, in another generation the company will be nothing but a footnote.

 

[Bob L.]

I use my fountain pen while I teach math. The kids think it is the coolest thing going. Our local staples is probably wondering why so many Metropolitans are going out the door...

 

[brianw]

Not just Microsoft....but the real arrogance lies with Apple as well

 

[Kevan]

Not just Microsoft....but the real arrogance lies with Apple as well

The TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley put it best. Near the end, Steve Jobs says to Bill Gates, "We have better stuff than you, Bill. Cooler stuff!"
"You still don't get it, Steve," Gates replies. "That doesn't matter."

That still holds true today. Apple has always been the more arrogant of the two companies, from the '80s to the current era. Microsoft used to be the company that just "got on with it," but now, after years of sub par software releases and hardware that didn't measure up (Xbox excepted)...they're just as arrogant as Apple....just in the form of relying on their success in the past.

 

[nortac]

I think there will always be a niche market for fountain pens. As for MS and Apple, sooner or later they will go the way of Commodore computers and Pac-man video games.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Actually, fountain pens ARE an outmoded technology consigned to dusty museums. A small group of niche enthusiasts chatting online doesn't register on any measurable scale.

 

[andrew98]

Actually, fountain pens ARE an outmoded technology consigned to dusty museums. A small group of niche enthusiasts chatting online doesn't register on any measurable scale.

Increasing sales figures are, in fact, a measurable scale.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18071830

-Andy

 

[andrew98]

It's also worth noting that in many countries outside the US, fountain pens are required for use in school (some countries in Europe) or are wildly popular and commonly used among adults (eg, Japan). When I was in France a couple years ago, fountain pens for school children were sold in grocery stores for a few Euros each. We bought one, a Pentel, to see if it was any good, and my fiance still uses it.

-Andy

 

[Kevan]

Fountain pens will be around for awhile yet, I agree -- like mechanical watches. The market for them is not going away. And since there are pens for every budget level, that helps keep them alive (are you listening, Conway Stewart?).

It's worth noting that the fountain pen world and the computer world have some parallels with regard to their "rise." Both Microsoft and Apple profited off the ideas of others. Apple basically stole the GUI and the mouse from Xerox (Xerox had advanced GUI designs, the mouse, and proto-email way before anyone else. Could you imagine if theywere a name synonymous with computers today?!), and Microsoft bought DOS off some small programmer for cheap, improved on it, and licensed it to IBM for tons of money, and then developed Windows after using Apple's OS as a "base."

Fountain pen manufacturers stole ideas off each other for years. They took each other to court constantly until the some of the designs became "standard" for pens anyway.

 

[Eeyore]

It's also worth noting that in many countries outside the US, fountain pens are required for use in school (some countries in Europe) or are wildly popular and commonly used among adults (eg, Japan). When I was in France a couple years ago, fountain pens for school children were sold in grocery stores for a few Euros each. We bought one, a Pentel, to see if it was any good, and my fiance still uses it.

-Andy

All kids use a fountain pen in primary school here. At least that was when our kids were in primary school, and when I was in school myself. The Lamy ABC is a popular school pen here.

 

[rdeakle]

It's also worth noting that in many countries outside the US, fountain pens are required for use in school (some countries in Europe) or are wildly popular and commonly used among adults (eg, Japan). When I was in France a couple years ago, fountain pens for school children were sold in grocery stores for a few Euros each. We bought one, a Pentel, to see if it was any good, and my fiance still uses it.

-Andy

This is true. I dated a girl from Germany, and all through school she had to use a fountain pen. She was a fan of the Lamy Safari, and today has a Parker something-or-other.

 

[Eeyore]

This is true. I dated a girl from Germany, and all through school she had to use a fountain pen. She was a fan of the Lamy Safari, and today has a Parker something-or-other.

Doesn't mean that people are more fountain pen minded later in life.

Yesterday I lent my pen to the server in the restaurant (her ballpoint ran out), and she told me that she had not used a fountain pen since her school days.
My kids are converted to cheap rolleballs and felt pens as well, despite the fact that both had a quality fountain pen in school.