A second after the uploading of my last blog and its prediction of POD opportunities in 2007, The Guardian Unlimited published a piece on the 'Espresso’ POD print machine. It restated that it can store 2.5 million books and also print, cut and binds up to 20 books an hour.
We reported on this in our report “Brave New World” and its deployment at the World Bank bookstore in Washington DC. The machine will now be moved to New York City library, where copies of out of copyright books will be available to buy at roughly $3 each. It now appears that the Espresso machine is now being launched to several other US libraries.
The price was originally $60k and was expected to drop to $20K on mass production, but is still reported today at $50K plus a 1p a page to print.Irrespective, it clearly heralds a new era where print can be localized and bookstores must think hard about where they wish to position themselves.
Do the libraries own this space – we think not.
Does Starbucks and the coffee houses own this space – we think not?
Will bookstores consider the investment either as communities or by themselves – we hope so.
To read more on this machine visit http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/PUBLICATION/INFOSHOP1/0,,contentMDK:20884077~pagePK:162350~piPK:165575~theSitePK:225714,00.html
to be bowled over by their video: rtsp://streaming3.worldbank.org/EXT/Infoshop_Printing.rm
