I read an interesting article on MarketWatch.com some time back (Digital business cards move networking off paper) proposing that traditional business cards may be under threat from some new kids on the block – digital business cards and their associated networking services. Check out mine from BusinessCard2.com:

Yes, my BusinessCard2 card would look nice on my email attachment and handy for social networking, Tweets and the likes. But… yes, the but word; how about at a trade show? What about in the elevator? Or at my boys football (yes, soccer) matches?

There is work being done where these can be zapped from one cell phone to the next. But till all cell phones can communicate equally, the printer need not worry about printed business cards with fancy color graphics, maybe even made with Publisher software (!), going anywhere, anytime, soon.

This said, Stephen Beals gave us some stark warnings in this recent post, titled, “Don’t be too Certain About Print’s Future“…  Read more... (256 words, 1 image, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

The PRINT 09 show in Chicago a couple weeks ago is proof that many printers need to become more than just appliers of ink onto rolls of paper. The latest Fuji inkjet press or Xerox digital printing machine is of course important, yet we read in this article titled, “The Digital Future for the Printing Industry” that print-shops need to change or die. What is that change generally about?

“The printing industry is currently and will continue to experience many transitions in the form of `Digital Printing and Communications`. This also impacts on all businesses globally.

The printing industry will continue to evolve into new and exciting `electronic imaging driven by digital technology`. Digital technology, economic restructuring, global competition, market changes, emerging new media and other market forces are combining to `dramatically` change the operating environment of the Printing Industry.”
Source: http://www.graphicstart.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=429

Here is a little video of T.J. Tedesco giving a 40,000 foot view of social media for printers at PRINT 09, which is for sure part of this transformation (Starting to sound like a Mayan 2012 prophecy!):
 Read more... (560 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)