Selling books and PDF's with a profit

The US-based National Academies Press won the prestigious ISMS Prize at Wharton University. The publisher developed a model that took advantage of the growing number of orders for electronic books. Research showed that 65%-70% of visitors of the website came to view only one page. Visitors were split into online shoppers and buyers of a printed book opposed to who were browsing books that had a PDF version available. They determined that selling the electronic version of a book at 75% of the print price would generate the highest profit. With the book price at the same level and a bundle of print + electronic at an 18% mark-up, total sales rose by 10% (and web sales by 14,4%). In the meantime the electronic books sell at 85% of the print price demonstrating the success of the model.

Listen to paper

I'm still in Helsinki at the world' largest paper Conference, in the home country of Finnish forest companies that are among the largest in Europe and in the country from which Nokia originates. It might therefore sound as cursing in the church when saying that the future of paper might to some degree be depending on the integration of new technology. My presentation yesterday on the advertising value of print media elaborated on this subject. And yesterday night when checking BBC news I heard about a new form of convergence: paper that can talk to you. The Mid Sweden University has developed a paper with printed integrated electronic circuits and speakers that -when touched- can bring an auditive message. Making posters or packaging interactive. And today's marketing is all about interactivity.
To watch the applications go and watch this video. This 'sounds' very interesting for the paper industry but also for the digital printing industry.

Not paper-less, but Zink

Zero Ink (Zink) technology was presented last week at a technology show in the USA allowing to print full colour images on paper without using ink. The images appear on a sheet of paper after the paper is heated in a special printer. The innovation is in the paper, dye crystals are embedded in the paper and activated when heated. The crystals then colourise, producing high quality images. The shape of the printers will change drastically as no ink cartridges are required with this technology. As the size can be really small applications in mobile phones are foreseen for the end of this year.

No chance of passing on a cold at the office

As long as you use the innovation of the US company Domtar chances will be reduced. They developed an office paper that is antimicrobial. This paper is protected by a silver compound against the growth of bacteria, odours, fungus, mold and mildew. The silver compound immediately kills the bacteria after contact with the paper. The company sees a new market opening in the healthcare, laboratory, hospitality, education and governemental sectors.

Al Gore's impact on paper

Last week I posted the news about e-paper from the British Plastic Logic company. This week I read about two other developments that are of interest to the paper and media industry. Toshiba has developed a printer and a new substrate that allow a same sheet to be printed up to 500 times. The printer uses thermal technology, a form of plastic sheet and no ink. Toshiba claims that at the production of the printer and using it produces less carbon dioxide. Xerox in the meantime developed an erasable paper. This sounds like a technology developed by Q in the James Bond films. Once printed the paper self-erases in 16-24 hours. "People like paper" says Eric Shrader of PARC (Xerox research center), that explains why an average office worker prints about 1,200 pages a month and trows away 21% the day that they were printed. They print to read not to store. Xerox is also working on electronic reusable paper. This Gyricon sheet is a thin layer of transparent plastic which is "loaded" electronically to display text and images.

Production of e-paper takes off

Plastic Logic (UK) announced yesterday that it will build its first plant to produce displays for e-paper. These flexible active-matrix displays that are thin, light and robust will be at the heart of new readers. The production at the plant in Dresden (Germany) is starting in 2008. People do not want the bulk and weight of paper, they have become more environment conscious and because the reading experience on laptops and PDA's is not optimal Plastic Logic is expecting a great future for e-paper. The market for this new product category is expected to count 41,6 million units in 2010.