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This isn't anything new. They've been pushing these machines since...oh, what, the late 90's, early 2000's? I still remember when they told about the first machine they made. It could produce an entire book, bound and all, in like 5 minutes. The bookstores loved the idea because it meant more sales because they could then offer any book, even those out of print, to anyone who wanted them. The problem however has been the big houses. Every time this idea has come up and someone has produced one of these machines, the BPH's have killed them dead as road kill. They're doing that because they fear that if these machines get too popular people will be able to print and sell books left and right, and never have to pay the publishing houses, meaning the BPH's will lose a lot of money.
Of course, with the rise of ebooks, these may quickly become a thing of the past, or cease to be a necessity. Either way, there's too many forces working against them. So these print on demand book machines will likely rise as a novelty that serves a niche market, but little more, as I don't see the BPH's allowing them to rise to prominence. Yes, there's ways to track sales and bill the stores accordingly. However, those can be circumvented, which then leaves us back at reason one why they've never taken off.
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