A Boom in the 1980s

The "takeoff" period for answering machine occurred after 1984, when AT&T split up and customers finally had complete freedom to buy their own telephone equipment. At that point, answering machines began to sell more than 1,000,000 units per year, and their technology became standardized. In the 1990s, telephone companies began offering "voice mail" services (which had been available since at least the 1970s at the offices of IBM and some other companies). However, the sales of home answering machines remained high. The advent of the cell phone, which virtually demands some kind of voice mail system, has begun to create change. It seems likely that with the convergence of the Internet and telephony, stand-alone answering machines will most likely disappear.

 

A Phone-Mate 9750, circa late 1980s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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