Understanding Short-run printing

Have been doing some reading about short-run printing over the last couple of days, primarily resulting from a Google search about the HP Indigo press. There seems to be a lot of useful material and thus this blog to distill as much of it as I can.
I am looking to understand the technologies involved, the manufacturers, retailers and whatever else I can find.
Two articles here: One a marketing document on why short-run printing on HP Indigo rivals offset printing - which mentions the Seybold report.
Another marketing document which uses Shutterfly as a case study. Shutterfly's CEO Jeffrey Housenbold mentions HP Indigo's advantages over silver halide printing - a primary search reveals this to be the process involved in traditional photo printing [Does Kodak/Fuji use this? What about Xerox?]. [An enlightening interview with Sramana Mitra is here].
In India, the showcase company is Mazda Pro Imaging in Mumbai, owned by Phiroze Havaldar, who is also one of the partners in zoomin - a recent photo printing start-up.