Production Inkjet: Time to Invest?

Tackle the Learning Curve

Marco Boer, vice president of I.T. Strategies, believes the decision to buy now or wait for some of the pending technologies bound for the market is best viewed from the standpoint of tackling the learning curve involved with production inkjet.

"Sure, in two or three years there will be better devices that are less expensive and more productive," he says. "But, unless you buy now and come up to that learning curve—figure out how to sell the output and build the volumes—all your competitors who started earlier will have a huge competitive advantage. If you're interested in this space and you have enough volume, you're better off investing today because of the learning curve than you would be by waiting for the next, cheaper generation product."