Welcome to Printing Industry News Digest (PIND) issue 84, providing a summary of major news items from the printing, publishing, 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!
Some clarity has been delivered this week with regard to the Manroland situation. Following a meeting of creditors on Wednesday where some initial bids for the business were tabled, the result was a breaking up of the business. The Augsberg web offset factory is to be sold to German conglomerate Possehl Group. The same company may well also acquire the Plauen factory. The future of the Offenbach sheetfed facility is less clear, but it currently appears to be the subject of a management buyout with finance from an as yet unnamed financier. There has to date been no official comment regarding the future of the Manroland subsidiary companies, such as Manroland GB. Initial estimates with regard to jobs suggest a cull of some 50% of German jobs. Further detail will surely follow.
In the same week Heidelberg has announced the loss of some 2,000 jobs, with 1,200 of these taking place in Gremany as the company aims to cut production capacity by 15%.
Kodak offered perhaps even bigger headline material this week as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US. This provides the business with legal protection from creditors while it reorganises its finances and its business units. It is not the end for Kodak, in the same way as Chapter 11 was not the end of General Motors, which used the protective measures to great effect in recent years. However, it is certainly not generating positive news for the once dominant film producer.
We have to stay "big" after those three, so Google financials certainly fits the bill. Full year revenues for 2011 up 29% and last quarter revenues of $10.58 billion seems suitably "big" to us, but not everyone was impressed!
Microsoft's Windows division is apparently also struggling along with revenues of $4.7 billion, but this is 6% down. Everything is relative you see.
Scaling things down just a bit, Google has also been advising us that some 250 million Android devices have been activated and a whopping 11 billion apps have been downloaded from Android Market.
On the subject of Android, the Guardian offers an interesting view regarding Google's loss of control of the operating system. It makes an interesting comparison between where Android is right now v. iOS.
Also this week Apple has been telling the world all about iBooks 2, and its aims for the text book market. The potential for interactive text books has to be huge, but publishers will again need to adjust to the new rules of the game.
Combining all of the last three topics, and moving the goalposts just a bit, Engadget offers us a view on where Window 8 tablets are right now. It suggests that there is already an apparent pricing problem, with a struggle on to get an end user price of less than $600. Arguably, with recent CES topics in mind, this is still too expensive anyway! Already $450 (sub-£300) is more realistic in the Android arena in our opinion.
Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 85. 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!
PIND084
Missed Issue 83, including tech snippets and software? Then simply click here!
Issue 82: Kodak news and publishing topics
Issue 81: Manroland, newspapers and cloud
Issue 80: Further update on Manroland
Get Your Print News Every Day!
Got friends that might like GenesisNews? Tweet them now: click here!
Some clarity has been delivered this week with regard to the Manroland situation. Following a meeting of creditors on Wednesday where some initial bids for the business were tabled, the result was a breaking up of the business. The Augsberg web offset factory is to be sold to German conglomerate Possehl Group. The same company may well also acquire the Plauen factory. The future of the Offenbach sheetfed facility is less clear, but it currently appears to be the subject of a management buyout with finance from an as yet unnamed financier. There has to date been no official comment regarding the future of the Manroland subsidiary companies, such as Manroland GB. Initial estimates with regard to jobs suggest a cull of some 50% of German jobs. Further detail will surely follow.In the same week Heidelberg has announced the loss of some 2,000 jobs, with 1,200 of these taking place in Gremany as the company aims to cut production capacity by 15%.
Kodak offered perhaps even bigger headline material this week as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US. This provides the business with legal protection from creditors while it reorganises its finances and its business units. It is not the end for Kodak, in the same way as Chapter 11 was not the end of General Motors, which used the protective measures to great effect in recent years. However, it is certainly not generating positive news for the once dominant film producer.We have to stay "big" after those three, so Google financials certainly fits the bill. Full year revenues for 2011 up 29% and last quarter revenues of $10.58 billion seems suitably "big" to us, but not everyone was impressed!
Microsoft's Windows division is apparently also struggling along with revenues of $4.7 billion, but this is 6% down. Everything is relative you see.Scaling things down just a bit, Google has also been advising us that some 250 million Android devices have been activated and a whopping 11 billion apps have been downloaded from Android Market.
On the subject of Android, the Guardian offers an interesting view regarding Google's loss of control of the operating system. It makes an interesting comparison between where Android is right now v. iOS.Also this week Apple has been telling the world all about iBooks 2, and its aims for the text book market. The potential for interactive text books has to be huge, but publishers will again need to adjust to the new rules of the game.
Combining all of the last three topics, and moving the goalposts just a bit, Engadget offers us a view on where Window 8 tablets are right now. It suggests that there is already an apparent pricing problem, with a struggle on to get an end user price of less than $600. Arguably, with recent CES topics in mind, this is still too expensive anyway! Already $450 (sub-£300) is more realistic in the Android arena in our opinion.Finally, do keep checking back to see what will be featured in our next edition, PIND 85. 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!
PIND084
Missed Issue 83, including tech snippets and software? Then simply click here!
Issue 82: Kodak news and publishing topics
Issue 81: Manroland, newspapers and cloud
Issue 80: Further update on Manroland
Get Your Print News Every Day!
Got friends that might like GenesisNews? Tweet them now: click here!
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