In a post on its blog, Infotrends states that Heidelberg will delay announcement of its digital printing plans until 2011. The report is based on a report in Germany following a meeting of the Eurographic Press editors. Having only this week had a meeting with the key executives at Heidelberg let me put the position correctly. When Bernhard Schreier made the announcement that Heidelberg would make an announcement about it's plans for digital printing he stated the term "this year." Knowing how Heidelberg works what he really said was "this calendar year" as Heidelberg always works on calendar years. That means an announcement by the end of March 2011, and I would expect an announcement in February.
The other aspect that Infotrends comments upon is they are surprised that Heidelberg plans to have a digital press with a performance of up to 90 pages/min rather than some of the higher performance offerings from companies like HP Indigo, Kodak, Oce or Xerox that would be more likely to appeal to its commercial printing customers. I disagree with Infotrends on this and feel that the majority of Heidelberg's customers that have not at this time moved into digital printing are the smaller printers that make up most of the company's user base and the specification of this first Heidelberg digital press is the correct decision.
I have seen the whole strategy for digital printing from Heidelberg and it is one where offset and digital printing work closely in harmony, and I think it is an excellent strategy. Heidelberg is not at this time stating who their digital partner is, and are leaving it to us to play a guessing game. I have however seen print output from the press and seen it compared with both offset and certain high-end digital presses, and I feel that Heidelberg's customers will be delighted with it.
I have an article all ready to publish as soon as Heidelberg is prepared to make an announcement. It is worth waiting for this article. In the meanwhile I will be publishing an article at WhatTheyThink on the current position of offset and digital printing, and you will find on this I don't agree with WhatTheyThink’s Frank Romano and do agree with the findings of the recent study by IT Strategies on this subject.
Discussion
By Pat Berger on Dec 11, 2010
Memjet has been actively perusing a partner. Heidelberg and Memjet cooperating could be a good economic kick for both.
By Jim Hamilton on Dec 13, 2010
The other point I made in the blog was that at IPEX Heidelberg talked about possible digital partnerships (not just one). Heidelberg has plenty of opportunities to partner outside of a mid-range color digital device. I hope (and expect) that we will hear about more than a just a single partnership in 2011, though perhaps they can find a partner who can meet multiple needs across digital print (toner and inkjet), wide format, plus software tools for multi-channel communication and variable data.
By John Henry on Dec 13, 2010
As a shop with mostly H-berg iron, I will be closely watching this. Then again I will keep history in mind, I still recall how many printers were not happy with how H-berg treated them with the Nexpress and Digimaster when they were jettisoned by the mother ship. The mindset of digital click rates vs. unending time and material bills was hard for both customers and H-berg to maneuver last time. I hope H-berg has learned and comes up with a simple cost per click structure, if not I will stay with the others who know the digital business. Do they need to be in the digital business? YES but it will take cultural shift in management expectations + their sales force has little of the needed knowledge base and maybe unwilling to adept.
By Frank Romano on Dec 13, 2010
"I have an article all ready to publish as soon as Heidelberg is prepared to make an announcement."
Where's WikiLeaks when we need them?
Frank
By Don Piontek on Dec 13, 2010
If Heidelberg can offer a digital engine with proper color management, color consistency, and reliability, they will have a winner within their customer base. In order for offset and digital to complement each other, their outputs from must be indistinguishable from each other. This is something the digital print vendors often fail to understand.
By Andres Ferrer on Dec 13, 2010
Memjet is known to have developed Wide Format technologies but nothing on Sheetfed or Continuous Feed.
By Chuck Gehman on Dec 15, 2010
First, what would the advantage to a customer be in buying a digital press from Heidelberg?
There is nothing particularly new about Offset and Digital work in "close harmony". This is well understood, and doesn't necessarily require equipment or software from a single vendor.
More importantly, I think I would share John Henry's view on both points he makes-- that it will require a great deal of hard work on Heidelberg's part to regain trust, and seeing how they did not compete well on their first foray into this business, how can we expect success now as they re-enter a significantly more competitive market as a weakened company?
And yet, I am excited about it, and I will certainly find this fascinating to watch and look forward to more news and insight!!
By Scott Cappel on Dec 16, 2010
Heidelberg and Memjet would be a game changer. Memjet needs a player to bring their technology to the marketplace, Heidelberg needs a technology that re-establishes its position as a leader in the print equipment industry.
It would be a perfect strategy and partnership.
This could be very big.
S.
By Roy on Dec 16, 2010
Messeges from May 2010 : "Offset giant Heidelberg will now be selling digital presses" .........."having signed an exclusive agreement with Konica Minolta." prinweek i think
By Morten Reitoft on Dec 17, 2010
I have been interested in Digital Print for some years - and though I understand the argument for speed - I must admit that working with digital print is not a matter of speed in it self. To fill up digital print with a huge amount of jobs require a completely new business model for sales - and digital in the future is not ONLY about small circulation, but about added value in the print. This require a more intelligent sales and better understanding of the values in Digital Print - therefor better integration in workflows.. Since Digital Print is really great in quality - I personally believe that the finishing is the biggest real lack in digital print - so dear Heidelberg.. wouldn't it be SO great to have a 90 pages Digital Printer that are able to print in B1 and B2 formats - and perfection print would also be great - and then a option to either output flat for offline finishing or a integration of the higher quality online or near online finishing... Would be nice, but I think not!!!
By Greg Goldman on Dec 20, 2010
So why is Heidelberg able to get so much press by announcing a partnership? Is the digital printing technology not available through the current partner? Is this "partner to be named later" just leveraging a Heidelberg as a reputable sales channel? Perhaps. However changing the size of the digital print industry and number of pages captured by digital presses will take more than a press release.
Digital print is stuck in slow growth mode (analog page conversion) because of the market forces in place today. John Henry's post is the closest ...it comes down to cost.
Given that over capacity of analog presses, a capacity that won't be changing any time soon. The fact that fewer analog pages are being printed today. Along with the current cost structure of all digital production... slow growth will continue with or without Heidelberg in the game.
Discussion
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