IBM Wheelwriter
More info
- Creator
- IBM
- Released
- 1984
- Type
- Electronic typewriter
- Predecessor
- IBM Selectric
- Owner
- Lexmark (from 1991)
IBM's electronic daisy-wheel typewriter from 1984, the successor to the golf-ball Selectric.
The Wheelwriter arrived in 1984 and swapped the Selectric's spinning type ball for a snap-in plastic daisy wheel. It borrowed tricks from the word processor — a line of correction memory, a lift-off correction ribbon, a single-line display — while still hammering each letter onto paper. The line was IBM's last major bet on typewriters; as offices moved to PCs and laser printers, the market fell away beneath it. IBM spun its typewriter division off as Lexmark in 1991, which kept the Wheelwriter name alive for a few more years.