The confusing thing is, I’m not sure that the excitement is about the actual print technology, because when you get right down to brass tacks – by Landa’s own admission – it ain’t ready. And yet there are customers lining up to place their deposit. Watching the presentation, I began to wonder if there was something in the smoke that was having this effect on people! Would the result be the same if Xerox or HP were pitching the same products I wonder?
The Landa show is a promise – Benny Landa’s personal promise in effect – that the Nanographic technology will do what we’re told it will. That promise is lent credence by several factors, namely: Landa’s reputation; the partnerships with Heidelberg, Manroland and Komori; and the money he’s investing in bringing this new technology to market.
But it’s not a guarantee, which makes the deposit a gamble. Still, as one print CEO put it to me – on the basis of a persistent rumour at Drupa that the required deposit was in the region of £10,000: "It’s not a bad bet – it won’t kill your business if you lose the deposit and, if it does what it says it will, then it’s got to be worth the punt.
