6/6/01 - According to TrendWatch, four percent of print businesses plan to purchase digital presses. Likewise, only 7% of printers see digital printing as a sales opportunity. There are several issues swirling around here. First, many marketers (and their agencies) are not educated on the benefits of digital presses (yep, even we said benefits!). Second, selling digital printing different than what most printers are used to, or even understand-- it's not as much about the press as it is all of the service(s) that surround it. Third, so long as customers' short-run color needs can be met by other means, be it traditional offset printing or--increasingly--by desktop/network print devices and/or non-print media, investment in this technology will remain low. The bottom line: there is simply no pressure from customers for printers to adopt this technology.