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 By Kevin Keane, IAPHC CEO Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Drumbeats Along the Digital River "The black and white copying world is moving to digital and it is happening now. In the mid-volume speeds of 50 to 65 copies per minute there are models currently available from Konica (7060), Oce (3165) and Xerox (DC265)." From a preface to a Digital Copier/Printer Survey in the March 1998 issue of Larry Hunt's High Speed Copy News, a publication we continue to regard with the highest esteem. On 19 March, the Wall Street firm of Morgan Stanley issued a opinion that the "imaging sector will underperform the market" and specified Imation, Eastman Kodak and Poloroid. On 23 March, Scott Black of Delphi Management recommended on CNBC the stock of Scitex, now trading in the ten dollar range, citing new digital product offerings. (See previous issues of Tuesday Morning News, {TMN,} including the 27 January issue as well as the most recent double issue of Know More Notes for news about the Scitex and KBA Planeta joint venture to develop the Karat 74 digital press.) On 19 March at CeBit '98 in Hanover, Germany, Electronics for Imaging (EFII) announced the Fiery X2e embedded controller for the Canon GP 215. On 17 March EFII announced a new OEM relationship with AGFA Gevaert under which AGFA will sell EFI's Fiery SI color server as the AGFA Phenom-si in Europe. On 16 March, at Seybold in New York came the announcement that Wam!Net had purchased 4-Sight, Ltd., of Bournemouth, England. Wam!Net based in Minneapolis, also announced a successful $208 million dollar private placement on 19 March. Wam!Net, a privately held concern, specializes in high-speed digital workflow applications for advertising agencies, corporate communications departments and prepress, printing and publishing houses in the graphic arts industry. 4-Sight is a leading provider of ISDN dial-up solutions for the digital transmission of data files worldwide. On 20 March, Xeikon, maker of the digital color roll fed presses such as the DCP 50, which units are marketed through alliances with firms including PrimeSource Corporation, saw it's stock price top $23. It's 52 week low was $61/2. We wrote about Xeikon's prospects in the March 3rd issue of TMN. From the March 1998 issue of Discover magazine: "Peter Will calls it the Intelligent Motion Surface. Other researchers call it vector field robotics. The idea is the same: to use the technology of semiconductors to make a whole new kind of robot -- a flat, smart, ciliated surface.....Here's what's in store for ciliated robots: Microvalves. Andrew Berlin at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) is developing microscopic valves for exceedingly accurate printers. He has built a prototype that has 50 microvalves that move the paper through the printer by shooting jets of air." We can deny that digital will reshape the printing industry only on pain of our fanny being exposed in the air because our head is stuck in the sand.
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