Full article on: www.WhatTheyThink.com
Commentary by Andrew Tribute
"January 9, 2006 -- The announcement that Amazon.com has selected HP Indigo digital presses to provide digital color printing for their expanding books-on-demand business is another indication that the digital book printing business is moving from monochrome to color.
The statement from Amazon shows that it is leveraging the power of digital technology to print books in real time. HP will become Amazon's preferred provider for color print-on-demand services. Multiple HP Indigo digital presses have been installed at Amazon fulfillment centers and are now producing full-color books on demand as well as color covers for black and white books.
Multiple HP Indigo digital presses have been installed at Amazon fulfillment centers and are now producing full-color books on demand as well as color covers for black and white books.
Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP commented: “the ability to produce books on demand is another result of the transformation from analog to digital printing, and with our line of HP Indigo presses, we are at the forefront of this trend. Now, through this collaboration, consumers will benefit from the integration of HP’s digital print technology and Amazon's unmatched ability to offer the broadest selection of books possible.�
Greg Greeley, vice president of books at Amazon.com. gave the following statement about this development: “Amazon is completely focused on the customer experience. This collaboration with HP will enable us to significantly increase the number of available titles our customers can purchase while offering publishers the highest quality color printing options.�
According to Interquest’s study, The Digital Book Printing Opportunity 2006, the books-on-demand market is expected to grow from approximately 20 billion book pages in 2006 to approximately 38 billion book pages by 2009. This is due chiefly to the increasing demand for small-volume, rare and self-published books."
