The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Apple

Having worked in the print and design industry for more than 20 years, Apple is a company that I have followed very closely.

The early development of computers saw Apple specialise in the desk top publishing market – aiming specifically at quick-print companies like Direct2Print.

The Mac competed head-on with PC’s driven by Microsoft software but manufactured by many different suppliers and ended up the loser. 

The Mac could never compete with the economies of scale the PC offered the wider market and had to include a substantial price premium to survive.

You had to buy separate software – and usually also at a substantially higher cost than software designed to operate on Windows.

It took the return of Steve Jobs as CEO and some investment from; amongst others, Microsoft owner Bill Gates, to help the business survive financially difficult times some twenty years ago.

However, Apple learnt from their early failures and in particular, the main reasons why Microsoft so dominated the computer market.

And how the tables have now turned.

Their recent successes are reflected in their financial results, which are absolutely staggering.

If Apple were a country it would have a greater GDP than many countries – including Hong Kong and Finland.  It could afford to buy 480 of the top 500 companies in the United States for cash.  In the last quarter, some 34,000 i-phones were sold around the world every second!

At the same time the market for desktop and laptop computers has collapsed and Microsoft is desperately trying to catch up in the now predominant mobile and tablet market.

The investment made by Apple into design and functionality is now really paying off.

 

How it all began

Microsoft decided (quite rightly) that the money to be made in the early days of desktop computing was in the software rather than the hardware.  

The Windows operating system was pre-loaded on every new PC – usually with their “free” Office Suite bundle of programmes.

Manufacturers producing the hardware, like IBM and HP, were successful because of the Microsoft software.

By putting all their resources into an integrated suite of programmes, Microsoft became the operating system for virtually all the computers produced around the world.  And they made it difficult for any competing software.

WordPerfect was a better word processor programme than Microsoft Word – but because it was pre-loaded it became dominant.  

The same happened to the more specialist spreadsheet software.  Lotus 123  was crushed by the emergence of Microsoft Excel.  

Access became the norm for databases and Publisher an ideal beginners programme for inexperienced graphic designers. Similarly, PowerPoint revolutionised printed presentations.

The secret of the Microsoft success was the simplicity of the programmes and their integration – everything worked well together and a new generation of computer users became competent and conversant with their programmes.

Why we went the PC Route?

We had the choice back in 1992 between Apple Mac’s or PC’s. 

When Desk top publishing replaced the traditional methods – such as  our IBM “Golfball” machine, bromides and the very expensive Letraset typesetting transfers used in pre-press print preparation – the instant print market really took off.

Probably more than 80% of companies in this sector preferred the Apple Mac solution. 

We were cheapskates and decided upon the PC route.

The main reason was the combined cost of the hardware and software.

Corel Draw was comparatively cheap (compared to the alternatives created for a Mac like Quark Express) and more importantly, came with some 2000 standard fonts and clip art.

With Quark, you had to purchase fonts separately – and the additional costs made a big difference to a small print and design business trying to service a large number of very small customers.

If a client is paying a few hundred pounds for a brochure the cost of purchasing a font is comparatively small, but for a £20 design for a business card it is a relatively high proportion of the cost.

We still use Corel Draw to this day – but we are indebted to Adobe for creating the PDF.

The nightmares we used to have trying to print from different programmes and different versions of the same software are now a thing of the past.  

We love Microsoft PowerPoint because it helped to create the market for online document printing.  The heavy ink saturation resulted in enormous printing costs and slow print speeds for people trying to print their own slides on a small home or office printer.  

As our digital colour printers became more sophisticated, they could print out a PowerPoint presentation in a few seconds – we would wire bind them together and hey presto – some pretty impressive hand-outs.

Sadly, Microsoft Publisher is an awful programme – despised by most print and copy shops and avoided at all costs by any commercial printer.

Still we never regretted the PC decision – although things may change in the future.

We were even given a second-hand Mac as part of a bad debt settlement but still used the PC’s and used the Mac just to open some customer files!

But things change.

My first Apple

Two years ago I bought an Apple i-pad and a slightly smaller Samsung Galaxy Tab at the same time. 

The i-pad was easier to use, portable and had a superb screen resolution.  The tab was very much second best – both in design and aesthetics.

Today, experts claim a major part of the success of Apple is that their products all work well with each other.  

So when the time came to replace my home computer – we went with Apple again and purchased the more expensive i-Mac.  

Over the years the PC’s I had at home slowed dramatically, picked up viruses, crashed on numerous occasions and struggled with any memory-intensive programmes.

The i-Mac looked good and came with the software pre-loaded included in the bundle cost.  

For a PC the software would now have been a lot extra.  The Office bundle could be downloaded but almost for the same cost as the computer!

Having never used Apple’s equivalent to Microsoft -  I can’t comment on the various merits of their word processors, spreadsheets etc. and still prefer to use my work PC’s for letters, reports or anything I need to email.  

I struggle with i-tunes and some of the other programmes but for photographs and video creation in my opinion it is far superior to the PC.

I-photo makes the storage and editing of photographs so easy – compared to every other PC programme I have used.

And i-movie is a revelation.  One session from the Apple specialist at PC World and suddenly I realised how easy Apple had made video creation.

I still have no idea how to use all the keyboard or even the mouse – but their design and aesthetics stand out.

My first video for work is uploaded and embedded into our new website – www.direct2print.co and the video has been uploaded to YouTube.

Have a look at the video -(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bo_hyWtEgg)  it took just a few hours to complete.

The question now is where does Apple go from here?  And what can their competitors do to keep up? 

They have such a large cash mountain you can afford to gamble and even make a few mistakes along the way.

And they are even planning to generate more cash by creating bonds because their cost of lending is so low and tax efficient.

The only reason for hope is that everybody thought Microsoft would go on to dominate the world. 

Technology moves quickly and even the biggest companies need to adapt.

The future may not be Apple after all!

Print wins again!

The death of print is continually proclaimed, yet even in this digital age there is something irreplaceable about being able to touch and feel something that is real and tangible.

Printed material still has a place in our online world.  When radio arrived everyone said newspapers would be dead and then TV arrived everyone said radio would be dead.  All that happened was that each medium shifted where it stood in the overall picture and then settled.  Vinyl records are making a comeback for a similar reason.

And nothing demonstrates the value of print more than the Christmas card.  

The first Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole some 170 years ago.   Costing a shilling each – 1000 cards were printed and produced as a luxury item for the wealthy of the time.

According to recently published research from One Poll, an overwhelming 72% of people preferred to receive a traditional card to any electronic festive greeting sent through social media channels, whilst more than a quarter of people either ignore or delete e-cards.

Cards tend to evoke memories and emotions – they are visually attractive (usually!), tactile, environmentally friendly and recyclable.  The Christmas card market is unlikely to die.  They are all about keeping in touch, keeping emotional connection, reaching out to spread caring and goodwill at Christmas time.

We have to be realistic that more and more of our customers are from the younger generation who prefer to click a few buttons on their mobile.  But there are certain people you would surely always get a card for?

The main priority for personal cards are family members – with over half saying a card to Mum (56%) and just under half (44%) saying a card to poor old Dad.  The growth cards are in the volume of single cards – where there was a value increase of £6 million, up from £148.4 million to £164.4 million.

As a business, our customers are the only reason we are able to grow and develop.  This is the one time of the year we can easily express our appreciation for their loyalty and support.  There is a strong case to be made to continue making this investment year on year.  We send out cards to our top customers in the year and with all statements in November and December because the postage is being paid anyway.

Despite the cost of postage, 50% who took the survey anticipated sending the same number of cards or more this year.  The Greeting Card Association estimated there were 800 million cards sold in the UK in 2013 worth approximately £200 million.  It is no wonder that they form such an important part of the seasonal decorations around the home.

Interestingly, snow scenes topped the popularity list with more than a third of recipients preferring a wintery image on their cards.  I am not sure what the results would be if a similar poll was undertaken in the southern hemisphere?

I also found this out too late for the design of our own Christmas cards this year – but will come in as useful research for the 2015 card!

Maybe, just maybe, they could even appreciate in value!

Apparently, one of those original 1000 cards sent by Sir Henry Cole to his grandmother in 1843, was sold at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire for £20,000 on 24 November 2001.  How many e-cards will ever appreciate in value?

Anyway, despite being a print business we will still send cards in every way possible this year – by post, by hand, by e-broadcast, even by social media.  This is not only due to quantities of people who now interact with an online business but also because of speed and convenience of online business communication.

But there is no doubt that print still wins – for this year at least!

An “A to Z” of Things That Could (Possibly) Go Wrong with Your Order! Part 2 - M To Z

Here is Part two of my A-Z of things that could possibly go wrong with your order: M-Z

M. M is for MARGINS

Margins, borders and tabs are often the cause of printing problems when presented with digital files for producing documents.
  
If they are not set correctly we can end up binding into text or can nudge the text on to the next line, paragraph or page.

Customers who design documents to the edge of each page often run into these type of layout problems. 

Remember to allow for plenty of “quiet area” around the edges of each page in a bound document or printed booklet.

N. N is for NOW

In an instant world some customers just want something done immediately. This relates to the Late Delivery problems but also customers who always seem to leave things to the last minute.

This is fine but is most annoying when they have been working or sitting on artwork for weeks and suddenly expect the printing to be completed on the same day!

A bit of forethought and planning can save a lot of stress and money and lead to fewer potential errors from our point of view.  We print and insert a Re-Order Form when we supply printed stationery, like letterheads.

We also pride ourselves in providing the fastest digital print service in the UK.   But we can’t do the impossible!

O. O is for ORANGE

Orange is one of the most difficult colours to match on a digital press.   To this day it remains as the reason for our only digital print order to be rejected on the grounds of colour quality.

Needless to say we have even managed to overcome this difficulty with our new equipment and who knows – one day we may even solve the problem of printing gold on a digital colour press!

P. P is for PROOFS

Proofing remains one of the main reasons for jobs going wrong.  

We can offer many examples of our own but perhaps the most humorous example was for an order of commemorative mugs for England cricketer Ashley Giles.  Rather than saying “Ashley Giles – King of Spin” he received a few thousand mugs proclaiming “Ashley Giles – King of Spain”!

Q. Q is for QUALITY

Quality is very subjective but appears to be no longer much of an issue with digital printing.  We offer a total guarantee with every job for quality – and never seem to have a serious quality problem.

Although with our machines calibrated on a daily or weekly basis there may be minor variations in colour for repeat orders.

Even when the file is stored in the memory of our press there could be a slight variation due to climatic conditions but this is rarely significant.

R. R is for REGISTRATION

Registration is the term for lining up double-sided printing.  There is a certain degree of tolerance required and also an area for allowance for the guillotine.

Again, this is a lot easier on the latest equipment where accuracy can be adjusted to within a percentage point or two.

One job that went wrong in our early years was for some personalised playing cards for a training company which formed part of the course – trying to print so many different files double-sided with little margin for error whilst trying to keep to a very tight deadline for a next day order.

S. S is for SCANNED PRINTING

When a file is scanned the quality is never as good as a copy saved from an original file.  
We often have to watch out for scanned pages that are not centred or are not clear when we prepare documents for printing.

And even the best OCR software can make mistakes – one of which resulted in our getting the post code wrong on some invoices – the customer spotted the mistake some six years later!

T. T is for TEXTURED STOCK

We can digitally print on all sorts of textured stock – and printing on a linen paper and card gives fabulous results.  Some artists frame the prints and they look like original oil paintings!
However, some textures are not brilliant for digital printing.  Hammer embossed or contoured papers and cards can prove difficult for toner application.

And there are some specialist papers that can do some real damage if they wrap around the rollers of the machine.

U. U is for US LETTER PAPER SIZE

Why do Europeans and North Americans have different standard paper sizes?

So many customers still have their default paper size set as US Letter size rather than A4 on their computers.  We usually make a couple of quick adjustments and the problem is sorted.
Occasionally though someone actually needs the job printed on US Letter paper!

We printed a thesis for submission to a US university on A4 paper in error – and then had to carefully trim the document to A4 size afterwards.

V. V is for VAT

There are so many discrepancies with which items are zero-rated for VAT that all online orders are charged with VAT.

Offline certain items can be zero-rated.  These include (very, very briefly!) – newsletters, leaflets, brochures, books and booklets, circular letters, programmes and orders of service for funerals.

And yet they all have to follow some very complicated set of criteria – such as the thickness of the paper, whether there is a tear-off portion etc. 

Again, why can we not simplify VAT for all us confused printers?  Perhaps by making all printed items zero-rated!

W. W is for WYSIWYG

Our general rule is “What you see is what you get” with a PDF file sent for digital or document printing.  However, there are exceptions.

The monitor may not be calibrated and there may be a host of issues with any fonts, images or diagrams you have incorporated.  

Two regular customers seem to have problems with their PDF’s and we check them very carefully now before charging ahead – we have learnt from experience!
But in most cases…

X. X is for XD DATA CARDS

Finding something starting with X is difficult.  But these days we are more likely to be presented with some miniscule memory disc from a mobile device or camera.

However, we do get files to print presented on XD data cards – they can be used but we have had some issues in the past.

Therefore, we prefer to operate from the traditional USB sticks or a CD / DVD – or even better a digital file uploaded or emailed over to us.

However, on one computer we still have a “floppy disk drive” – just in case we are presented with some seriously old artwork.  

Y. Y is for YULETIDE

OK – Christmas!  Christmas cards from any specialist printer rarely go according to plan.  And they seem to attract delivery problems.

Specialist card printers are probably the most inefficient of all forms of commercial trade printers.

This is why every printing business will try and print all greetings cards within their own premises.  

Our view is that if we remain in control of the whole production cycle we can usually overcome traditional problems that occur at this typically chaotic time of the year.  
And despite the problems they are still a very valued appreciation of thanks to customers and suppliers.

Z. Z is for ZIGZAG FOLDING

Just a small point but the artwork layout for letter folding does not always work for Zig Zag (or Z) folding.

It takes a while to get your head round but we have found that if we print out a small mock-up to explain the difference it helps.

It is always better being sure rather than sorry!

An “A to Z” of Things That Could (Possibly) Go Wrong with Your Order! Part 1 - A To L

The last Blog on printing from a PDF got me thinking about some of the jobs that have gone wrong over the last 30 years and some of the reasons why.  

Fortunately, they are few and far between these days and developments in technology have helped to overcome particular problems.  

Some things that went wrong were due to factors that were totally outside of our control and on other occasions we had to hold our hands up and take the blame and claim responsibility.

So here – to try and cover the wide range of possible problems - is a quick A to Z of just some of the things that have gone wrong or caused us problems in the past.

It is by no means comprehensive but shows the complexities of getting the printing right first time!

A. A is for ARTWORK

Firstly, let me start by saying that with digital printing or document printing this is not as big a factor as with traditional offset lithographic printing. 

It is not quite idiot-proof but these days there is just a big green button to push and if the print settings have been correctly configured you should just have to collect the finished product at the output tray.

See my previous blogs for potential problems with commercial printing problems – issues such as RGB files, no bleed, and low resolution images etc. etc.

Suffice to say that probably 90% or more problems with printing are artwork –related!

B. B is for BINDING

Binding is a relatively straightforward process but we have learnt to concentrate on the quick and easy methods of binding – again see my previous blog on these.

However, problems do arise and experience has taught us to purchase only quality materials.  
Good quality binding really makes a big difference to your final document’s appearance.

When we had to produce over a thousand wire bound books within 24 hours we purchased a batch of cheaper clear acetate covers which turned out to be a false economy.  

It took twice as long to bind - simply to pull each one off the compacted mass and then the static when placed on paper made the job twice as long as it should have taken.

C. C is for CUSTOMS

I have a large number of contenders for C – including Couriers, Christmas Cards and Customers which will all have to be dealt with elsewhere in this alphabetical summary.

However, the Internet has made the world smaller.  And customs clearance is a particular problem when sending printed documents to some parts of the world.  

In Brazil the recipient needs to pay a tax before the parcel is delivered – in an attempt to stop Internet shopping competing unfairly with local suppliers.  As a result we still have parcels awaiting collection because the tax to be paid is worth more than the document enclosed.

Switzerland is outside of the European Union and their Customs seem to delay any imports as a matter of course.  When we sent time-critical documents for a training course – we ended up getting them printed in Geneva.  Even toners for a printer/copier are frequently held back as a potential “suspicious substance” allowing local distributors almost a monopoly position.

D. D is for DRILLING

We have had our problems with manual drilling in the past – including having to reprint a complete set of menus for a Chinese restaurant chain because we drilled the wrong side of the paper.

But when it is online it should be fool-proof!  But one of our old colour printing presses had an online hole- punch that worked well for the first few copies – but for some reason the position of the drilled holes varied during the course of the job.

When the documents were inserted into the lever arch folders the pages were all out of alignment. 

After many tests and replacement parts, we eventually gave up on the process and replaced the machine as soon as possible.

E. E is for EQUIPMENT

Following on from previous point – make sure you have good printing and finishing equipment. 
Like cars – there doesn’t seem to be a bad piece of equipment these days but investing in quality has always paid dividends for our business.

We had been squeezing the last remaining life out of some pieces of equipment and the quality was not good.

And we now only use manufacturers to service our equipment, dealers seem to have a vested interest in just making a profit from their service contracts.

F. F is for FILES

Refer to my comments in the PDF blog – but we have been sent work with all sorts of file extensions that have not opened or been recognised.
  
Also files are easily corrupted and we have tried to recover and repair wherever possible with mixed results.

We have also been sent files that have an incredible data size far out of proportion to their contents.  Sometimes we have waited an hour or more for a file to be processed in the printing machine – often when there is a deadline to meet!

G. G is for GRADATIONS

Gradation refers to tones and the quality of tinted shades (usually in background).  They used to be the best way of testing the quality of comparable printers.  

The problems associated with our offset press have largely been overcome now we are predominantly a digital printer. But tones could appear banded and streaky when digital printing was first introduced.

But as we have moved from 600dpi to 1200dpi to 2400dpi the quality has improved – so we seem to have cracked this one!

H. H is for HUMIDITY

Paper storage is an important consideration for all forms of printing – paper absorbs moisture in the air and performance can be seriously affected by atmospheric conditions.

We now have a de-humidifier built into our colour press because of the problems caused by humidity.

Machines jammed, there were “blank” spots on copied documents and certain papers curled up, created static or just stuck together when passing through the press.

I. I is for IMAGES

We are often asked to print a file that contains low resolution images.  

These are usually downloaded at screen resolution from the Internet and the client expects them to be enlarged to poster size with amazing results!

When the printing is pixelated it is usually our fault of course!

J. J is for JPEG

Saying that – JPEG’s remain the second best piece of software after a PDF for a printing business.  

They can be very useful and we have even been known to print some pretty good business cards or leaflets from just a JPEG file.

K. K is for KONICA

Originally we were loyal to both Canon and Xerox, we then moved onto Ricoh for reasons of cost but now our Konica Minolta machines offer pretty good print quality and value for money.

We have now moved onto our second generation of Konica machines and the standards have been enhanced with a few more bells & whistle added in the process.

Hope this is not going to change now!

L. L is for LATE OR LOST DELIVERY

Couriers are often the weakest link in our supply chain.  They probably make up most of the other 10% of our problems after artwork!

There is nothing more frustrating when a customer is awaiting a parcel – the situation can be complicated by factors outside their control – like traffic, accidents, weather problems etc.  But it is wise to always build in a contingency for any urgent order to be really safe!

We can now track most of our consignments online.  We have had to introduce a £10 delivery charge for small value orders and keep to free delivery on orders over £50.  The Royal Mail parcel service is a waste of time and is rarely worth the risk.

It doesn’t happen often but occasionally a consignment is lost or badly damaged in transit.  This is why we place great emphasis on selection of the most reliable courier and good packaging and labelling to minimise the risk of a problem.