Business Management - Industry Trends

Printing shipments in October were up a strong +$259 million on a current dollar basis, and up +$155 on an inflation-adjusted basis. While current dollar shipments have been up for six months, real printing shipments have been up for three consecutive months. This was the biggest monthly comparison since July 2004’s real shipments were +$206 million compared to those of July 2003. For the year, real shipments are now slightly better than last year; it had been negative until this report. The strength of the increase may be attributable to highly contentious local political races around the country. Print was considered more effective than new

NPES members attending the 2006 Annual Conference in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida last month were treated to a business-intensive agenda featuring more speakers and ultra-current content than any previous event has afforded. With guidance from the Association’s Programs and Meetings Committee – Bruce Goodwin, John Stewart, Steve Fullerton, and Elinor Midlik – the Conference program was designed to engage members in lively dialogue with an array of industry leaders assessing and driving new business models of print. The program was enhanced by outstanding representation from the printing company community. An interactive printer panel discussion, featuring three executives assembled and moderated by NAPL’s Joe Truncale,

By Dr Peter Harrop At IDTechEx, when we teach Radio Frequency Identification RFID, we talk of it being a ubiquitous enabling technology like the wheel or paper. Some people consider that to be rather far fetched. After all, wheels extend from prayer wheels, steering wheels and wheels of fortune to aircraft wheels and microscopic wheels in Micro Electro Mechanical Systems MEMS. They are everywhere, as is paper because that appears as anything from art to toilet paper, packaging, books and origami. However, RFID is now used from Bulgaria to Namibia, from Azerbaijan to Vietnam and Antarctica. It is a life to death experience because it is

Last week, we reported about September printing industry shipments, and noted that the September to November period is the busiest of the year, stating that they were 26% of the year’s annual shipments. We received some notes that were along the lines of “So what? If three months is 25% of the year, what difference does that little percentage point really make?” That’s a very good question. Facetiously, the answer is about $900 million dollars for a year. We didn’t explain why it’s important, or how these months, and others, have changed over time. This September-November represented 26.56% of industry shipments from 1992 to

BOSTON—Aberdeen Group recently completed a study, titled, “Category Spend Management: Print & Print Services,” that uses Web-based surveys that were targeted to relevant executives and managers.The study is available for free through December 31. Visit http://aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3588 to receive the study. The report costs $399 after the promotional period.

CAMBRIDGE, UK—03 November 2006—The premier event in printed electronics is pleased to announce an exciting roster of thought provoking speakers and topics. Covering all aspects of printed electronics, from technical to financial, Printed Electronics USA 2006, is being held in Phoenix, Arizona December 5-6th. Delegates will hear from companies looking to the promise of this nascent technology to solve real world problems and open entirely new markets. For example, given that situational information is mission critical for military applications, delegates will hear from Dr. Darrel Hopper of the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the diverse opportunities the USAF sees for the

We sent this edition of PrintForecast Perspective later in the day to allow us to report the latest Commerce Department data for commercial printing shipments for September. The most important quarter of the year for the printing industry is September, October, and November. September printing shipments were up +$198 million compared to September 2005, an increase of +2.4%. This was the fifth month in a row of increased shipments. On an inflation-adjusted basis, it was the second consecutive month of real increase in shipments, up by +$36 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. August’s current dollar shipments were revised higher as well, by $5 million, making

The data is finally in: findings for the first half of 2006 are pointing to a strong upswing in sales of printing equipment. Shipments totaled $1.317 billion for the first half of 2006, a 28.8 percent increase over the same period in 2005. This follows a good 2005 in which equipment shipments were level with 2004, but up 23 percent over 2003, which was the low point year for equipment sales in well over a decade. The equipment data discussed here includes prepress, press and postpress/bindery equipment sales and is collected through the NPES market data program. This is actual data reported by

With the ability to track, locate and sense, Active RFID is being rapidly adopted around the World, often creating new markets. Many adopters have reported a rapid return on investment (ROI) of 12 to 18 months which is leading to active RFID being a $6.78 billion market in 2016. Here Dan Lawrence summarizes the topic for the forthcoming IDTechEx Active RFID Summit event. The use of Active RFID is growing rapidly, providing the ability to track, locate and sense. The subject includes real time locating systems (RTLS) to track assets and people in real time; near field communication (NFC) enabling mobile phones to act as

GPS to recreate entire worldwide infrastructure and provide all publishing services WASHINGTON DC—October 23, 2006—Following a rigorous government selection process, the Department of State awarded a 10-year contract worth $164 million to its revamped in-house printing and publishing organization, Global Publishing Solutions (GPS). The award decision culminated an 18-month public-private competition, comparing the government’s ability to provide a commercial service with the private sector bidders’ ability to accomplish the same service. Competitive Sourcing is one of the five Government-wide initiatives of the President’s Management Agenda, which is the Administration’s strategy for improving the management and performance of the Federal government. The competition encompassed 199 positions, including