Is iPad the print publishing killler we been waiting for?

[Mark H]

more like TWELVE percent of the world's population has access to a computer.

Printers will continue to scale back and the ones who find their niche will continue in business. The biggest issue in the near future is the outsourcing of printed material to China, etc...

There are 6.8 billion people on the plant and just over 1 billion personal computers (about 25% of which are in the US). That makes it about 17% for accessibility. However, this number is meaningless. The comparison really is in how many people will swap paper for electronic presentation, making the argument more about who is buying the paper communication to begin with.

For example, you might say that there are 1 billion people in India who do NOT have access to a computer. However, if I'm looking at who might buy an electronic version of Sports Illustrated vs the paper version that demographic wont matter to me since they're not buying the paper version either.

I find your question concerning the outsourcing of the actual printing offshore of great interest. All of my work is print-and-mail, so having my invoice printed offshore and mailed from Pakistan is not of interest to me or my customers. For my commercial work, I can't see sending an order for 500, or even 10,000 business cards to Jakarta. Again, customer demand fast turnaround and low price. Can lower production costs really absorb the shipping fee for all that weight? Perhaps for large quantity point-of-sale, or large/complex 3D builds?

Mark H