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 By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO "Technology encompasses many disciplines and industries, but its supreme symbol for our time is the Internet, the dynamic medium of the Information Age that is driving a revolutionary era still in its infancy." From an early entry to the 1998 International Gallery of Superb Printing -- a marketing book for the Wall Street firm Cowen and Company, entitled A Century Ahead, entered by Applied Graphics Technologies (AGT) which is home to well known North Jersey Club members Howard Feinman, Jim Doremus and membership maestro Ed Levy. AGT is a first time International Gallery entrant and we were much impressed by the quality and diversity of the pieces submitted. We also think that Cowen and Company is dead on in their assessment of the Internet. Paper Rebound? "Paper makers have bottomed. For some time now, paper companies have been good value. Paper prices and company earnings had begun to rebound until the Asian economic crisis set them back. Asia accounts for a third of world paper consumption. Nonetheless, the industry is restructuring and paper demand will grow faster than new capacity. We think we've seen the bottom of their earnings cycle, and stock prices are still very low. The industry provides one of the better value opportunities available." Prudential Portfolio manager, Thomas R. Jackson KBA-Planeta Gets Healthy German printing machine manufacturer Koenig & Bauer-Albert announced that it made a net annual profit on increased turnover. (Turnover is a continental term for revenue). The turnover growth came primarily from KBA-Planeta in Radebeul, which for the first time made a profit. KBA-Planeta produces sheet- fed offset presses. Sourced from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 February 1998, sent our way by Len Petitti, Third District Governor. Long time readers of Tuesday Morning News also know that KBA-Planeta is a partner with Scitex in the development of the Karat 74 digital press. Indigo Black? Or, no more blues at Indigo? Indigo N.V. ( a firm on whose stock Cowen and Company issued a buy recommendation at the turn of the year) has sent a flurry of news releases lately. It's revenues grew at the fastest rate in eight quarters, surging by 46%, yet its CFO predicted a profit squeeze due to increased R & D spending. Since we mentioned Xeikon's new DCP/50 press in last week's Tuesday Morning News, (remember that all past issues of Tuesday Morning News are archived on CraftNet at www.iaphc.org ) equal time induces us to mention Indigo's new TurboStream Digital Press. Heiko Niggemann, Indigo Press Manager at German printing company Drescher Digital said that: "Before TurboStream", when a salesman needed a proof for a customer, the company's press had to stop, bringing with it reductions in productivity. "Now we can proof in the middle of a job, and we can proof a number of sheets together, so we don't have to load and unload the press..." Coupled to the alliance with PagePath's LAUNCH! file transfer software, which we wrote about in Tuesday Morning News 17 February 98 (Indigo's DENIA) it is obvious that the fundamental shift in how print jobs are processed, has required the digital print manufacturers to provide their customer's with the ability to handle larger and more complex job files. And it seems equally clear that a key reason for Heidelberg to acquire Linotype Hell on the front end, and a range of bindery equipment makers on the back end, is Heidelberg's recognition that printers are being asked to provide one stop shopping from concept through completion, therefore the vendor who provides one stop shopping for equipment and software solutions, is changing it's business model in tandem with the printer/client. Sub Zero Computers? With apologies to the line of refrigerators by the same name, we saw two different news reports last week that indicate the "price point" for personal computers which is now around $1,000 for a remarkably full featured PC, may likely drop to the $500 neighborhood by this autumn. How low can they go! What's driving this phenomenon? In part it is caused by: The Race between Disk Drive and Semi-Conductor Makers In the world of semiconductors (microprocessors and memory chips) the venerable Moore's Law holds that processing power will double every 18 months. But disk drive makers have been advancing even faster - IBM's data shows that storage density has been growing at a 60% annual clip since 1991, while semiconductor capacity grew by a 'paltry' 47-50% annual rate. Readers of Tuesday Morning News will recall our writing about the newest advances in disk storage in an early January, 1998 issue. IBM's latest disk drive achievements announced in December, 1997, allows the storage of the equivalent of 500 lengthy novels on a disk drive the size of a poker chip. The upshot of these feats of miniature legerdemain -- the potential to substitute tiny disk drives for the usual computer memory chips in everyday hardware like digital cameras, or palmtop computers or other gear that just maybe your printing client is using already? drupa 2000 Our thanks to John Kohnke of the San Francisco Club for reminding us that it is never to soon to plan for drupa. If you want to check it out on the web, try: www.drupa.de
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