Sunday, December 18, 2011

Printing Industry News Digest No.81, December 17, 2011

Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 81, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, packaging, digital and communications technology sectors. PIND incorporates brief summaries and links to the week’s key news stories so that you can look up that all important detail, digging deeper behind the headline. Do also take a look at our automated Twitter-based GenesisNews Print Daily publication; why not take out a free subscription for a daily digital delivery!

A little quieter on the Manroland front this last week as the dust settles and people become used to the issues. Reuters summed up the current position on December 13, focusing on likely buyers and possible break-ups of the German press manufacturer. “The Offset Pressman” blog also takes a stab at forecasting the future, with a focus on potential Chinese investment.

Elsewhere in newspaper land, we have another of those often written pronouncements on the death of the newspaper: this one is five years away. However, there is always some reality to these stories, and Roy Greenslade brings us up to date in the Guardian this week with regard to the number of UK weekly newspapers that are no longer with us. Some thirty-one titles worth of closures.

InPublishing takes a more positive stance with its summary of a year of digital innovation in regional media. A US study also advises us that time spent on mobile phones has now passed the time spent viewing print media. Whilst internet time passed print some while ago, this latest set of figures relegates the newspaper/magazine combination even further down the media pecking order.

On a very much more digital slant, we find that iPad has maintained its tablet dominance with a 61.5 per cent share of the world market, with Android perched at 32.4 per cent. Tech Radar, however, tells us the second-generation Android tabs are taking the fight to Apple. As usual, we will see how things develop. Our own Galaxy Tab 10.1 experiences are still proving favourable, by the way: still there are better apps on Apple though!

A nice infographic details how cloud computing has changed business. Well worth a look. On the subject of cloud action, Microsoft has, and not before time, expanded the use of its SkyDrive storage space. Action has also been duly noted in the expansion of Microsoft’s OneNote, which now works well on our iPad. This just helps to close the loop, and makes it more of a useful competitor to Evernote. Want something to sync via your Dropbox instead? Try Speed Notes.

Back to the wonderful world of print, and an InfoTrends study gives us an up to date insight into the high-speed continuous colour inkjet market.

On the subject of inkjet technology, French manufacturer MGi has been in the news this week having been awarded the prestigious Engineering Prize for Innovation.

In the world of packaging, the Department of Health in the UK has announced the timeframe for planned consultation on plain packaging for tobacco products as spring 2012 – not long in other words!

Almost finally, my entry for the least surprising headline of the week award: Amazon doesn’t care about your local bookstore. Wired gives us the details.

Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 82. With the Christmas holidays and New Year break soon to be upon us, this next edition is likely to be in 2012, unless major news requires an emergency edition. For an RSS feed of PIND, copy this link into your feed reader; and click here for the GenesisNews Print Daily – you can even take out a free subscription for this daily news update on print, publishing, packaging and associated technology!

PIND081

Missed Issue 80, including a further update on Manroland? Then simply click here!

Issue 79: Manroland update plus KBA at Luton
Issue 78: press supplier Manroland in trouble
Issue 77: Siri, Kindle Fire, and your CV



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