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By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO Rights (7 hard ones) to the Solar Plexus From a speech by William L. Davis, Chairman and CEO of R.R. Donnelley and Sons to the Web Offset Association's 46th Annual Conference in Toronto on May 4, 1998: "We need to understand the Ground Truths of this business. There are a lot of them. I'm going to talk about seven.... Ground Truth # 1: Ink on paper is not dead, in fact there is plenty of life left. Ground Truth # 2: Our customers need help. Ground Truth # 3: There are too many printers. Ground Truth # 4: Printing is a manufacturing business. Ground Truth # 5: We are a decade behind in manufacturing best practices. Ground Truth # 6: We need more industry standards. Ground Truth # 7: No one is addressing the total supply chain." Kodak/Heidelberg NexPress In announcing on May 5th the joint venture NexPress, a non-impact, plateless color digital ink press to be unveiled at Drupa 2000, which will combine the digital color expertise of Eastman Kodak with the press manufacturing acumen of Heidelberg, an executive of Heidelberg USA, commented, "We have seen the death of offset." Folks who have read Tuesday Morning News closely will recall our February discussion with Jim Hopkins, president of J.F. Hopkins and Associates of Columbus, Ohio, who suggested that in his view, digital ink presses offered greater potential for color fidelity and high resolution than digital toner based presses. It appears Jim may have been prescient. Imation on the Block? On May 29, in the Minneapolis StarTribune, it was reported that Imation, the two year old 3M spinoff, might be an acquisition candidate. The article named two possible suitors, Eastman Kodak, whose chairman George Fisher once served on 3M's Board, and AGFA-Gavaert. "A lot of people in imaging are on the block" according to Alex Henderson, a Prudential Securities analyst. The article went on: "... Kodak might be attracted by Imation's medical imaging business, which features a film development process that eliminates wet chemicals normally needed to produce medical diagnostic images such as x-rays. Kodak has no dry products." IS & T At the May meeting of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, (IS & T) held in Portland, Oregon, the Chief Technology Officer for Eastman Kodak said: "Digital and chemical imaging technology will not just co-exist, they will thrive together to deliver expanded use and enjoyment of pictures to our customers." On Sheetfed Presses In the Digital Printing Report authored by industry eminence grise, Frank Romano, Mr. Romano forecasts a decline in conventional sheetfed offset presses from 190,400 in 1996 to 110,000 in 2003. While the move to digital accounts for some of the attrition, as does a forecasted increased adoption of waterless printing units, as does perhaps the overall consolidation trend; still we found the date worth noting. Because another well known industry executive recently predicted that 80% of all printing will be network based digital printing by the year 2003. As if in confirmation, on June 1st, IntraNet Solutions, Inc. announced that it had received an order for its Intra.doc! Management System from Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Des Moines, Iowa, a firm who submitted eight of the first entries in this year's International Gallery! Cheque Printing Goes Digital Too The StarTribune also reported that Check Technology Corporation announced on May 27th that it had sold its first digital check printing press in the North American market to Davis and Henderson Intercheques (DHI) in Toronto, the largest cheque printer in Canada. The new system is called Imaggia and has been well accepted in the 44 countries outside North America in which Check Technology sells its equipment. "They have a pretty decent market share in a number of international markets but have failed to successfully penetrate the US market to date. The challenge has been to show that the new system can more economically produce checks than the offset printing system," said Dennis Nielsen, an analyst with R.J. Steichen. The article went on to say: "Check usage is declining with the advance of credit cards, so-called smart cards and stored value cards. U.S. and Canadian printers will want to reduce expenses associated with the labor intensive offset printing, analysts said." A Different Asian Spin On May 28th Reuters in Bangalore, India reported that Apple Computer may be one of the few firms with a positive view of the Asian markets at the moment. "If you take the five fastest growing PC markets in the world (China, Mexico, India, the Philippines and Thailand), four of them are in Asia." Samit Roy, managing director of Apple Computer South Asia. PODi Growth On May 29th, The Print On Demand Initiative (PODi) announced the addition of Color Magic of Mountain View CA to their alliance of vendors and service providers participating in the digital color printing market. check it out at www.podi.org Several of the above items were passed along by Dick Lunde, member-at-large in Laguna, California. Thanks Dick! We always appreciate submissions from members, Share Your Knowledge won't you?
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