Is Visioneer a dying company? I ask because I can't find their
scanners in person at any retail stores in my area. Back in the late 1990's
they were readily available at Best Buy, CircuitCity, MicroCenter, Office
Depot...etc. Now, the only place to get their flatbed scanners is online.
Aren't they just a rebander, anyway? I've had two Visioneers, both quite
satisfactory, and I think the actual manuafcturer was Primax each time.
As a rule, scanners are no longer the hot item they were, because when
they got included in all-in-one(s) the focus automatically switched to
printer manfuacturers, since whomever buys one of those will be doing
vastly more printing than scanning, so the printer better be good (i.e. a
well-known name). And Canon and HP make pretty decent standalone scanners,
as they always have. It's difficult for the Visioneers and Acers of the
world to get a lot of attention.
Unless their construction quality has declined (my Visioneer's plastic
cover hinges are still intact, unlike those of my first scanner, a
Microtek, which broke after a year of use) it's not so bad a thing to buy
a scanner by mail if it tests out all right and word of mouth here is
good. Scanners have become specialty items (except in all-in-ones) and
user feedback is more important than being able to poke the cover in a
store.
Brendan
Ps I used to see Visioneer for sale at Office Max. Have they stopped
selling the brand?
