Olympia Compact S Typewriter, by Olympia, Germany, 1980s

The Olympia Compact S Typewriter is an electric typewriter first sold to the office and domestic market in the mid-1980s and marked a last attempt by the historic German typewriter firm Olympia to Olympia to retain their share and involvement in the competitive business market and stay ahead of the word processor, electronic and software before eventually ceasing production in 1992. Electric typewriters first entered popular usage in the 1930s with IBM via the purchase of Electromatic Typewriters became a leading supplier of electric typewriters. By 1958 IBM was deriving 8% of its revenue from the sale of electric typewriters. Electric typewriters remained in popular use beyond the introduction of word processors, electronic and software, in the 1970s and 1980s and the Olympia Compact S Typewriter represents one of the later models of electric typewriters.

This represents one type of electronic writing machine available in the late twentieth century to both the domestic and office markets, when electric typewriters were replaced by the electronic word processor, which was soon in turn replaced by word-processing software. All three “word processing” technologies overlapped at the end of the twentieth century soon to be almost completely replaced by word-processing computing software.