In general companies in the printing industry have not been good at branching out into new markets. If one looks at the latest digital printing technologies the major acceptance of these has not been by existing printing companies, but by entrepreneurs and companies from outside the printing industry.

For example few commercial printers have invested in super-wide format inkjet printers for the poster, signage, point-of-sale and other markets. The same can be said of digital color presses. Most buyers of these have come from service bureaus, direct mail companies and IT based organizations. It is only in recent years that commercial printers have invested in this technology, and that was largely because of pressure from their customers.

Most commercial printers, whether they are offset, flexo, gravure or screen, are very reluctant to move in to new technologies or even new markets they don’t understand. If they do make the move they tend to move late in the day when markets have already been established.