We reckon now is the time for print to go digital, said HP vice president and general manager, HP digital publishing solutions Bill McGlynn. Carly Fiorina recognises the timing its just like the impact of the digital switch in telecoms. We want to be the people identified with the switch.

Behind the switch to digital print will be the way companies manage information, especially marketing materials, as they look at media independent means of creating and storing and distributing information.

It opens a floodgate of digital pages and that is the opportunity, said McGlynn.

The firm is claiming that its access to the directors of large potential digital print customers combined with Indigos digital print technology will be a win-win situation for printers and customers.

Weve got fantastic customers pioneering the market but they dont have access to major corporate decision makers, said Indigo president and Landa.

The firm claims that corporates will prefer to outsource their print rather than bring production in-house.

We wont just sell a press well bring business with the press, said McGlynn. Business knows HP for printers, corporates trust us.

If there wasnt this unique package we offer and you looked at the presses theres still not a product to match them, said Landa. I wish Xerox and Heidelberg great success but I think theyll be second and third in the market.

In Europe and America the Indigo direct sales structure will remain, and there are no plans to switch to a distributor-based sales model.

The surge in digitally printed pages will see the price of ElectroInk fall. Its strictly about volume, said Landa. It will also lead to the setting up of ink plants in Europe and the US once volumes justify it.

McGlynn said he hoped the price and performance of products would follow the trend of other HP products. He gave the example of the LaserJet printer which fell in price by a factor of 10 over 10 years while gaining added features.

I have a dream to get to a $15,000 product, said McGlynn.

The two companies are an ideal fit, HP is so understated whereas were so overstated, said Landa.

Story by Barney Cox