*NEWS*KODAK & XEROX PUSHING KIOSKS

Toner News Mobile Forums Latest Industry News *NEWS*KODAK & XEROX PUSHING KIOSKS

Date: Monday February 25, 2008 02:16:00 pm
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    Kodak and Xerox push kiosks
    They hope to cash in on growing photo printing market
    (feb 2008) — Decked out in Kodak yellow and silvery gray and topped with a touch-screen monitor, the boxy photo kiosk at the CVS drugstore on Mt. Hope Avenue looks like a kitchen stove out of The Jetsons.And it can put customers’ digital images on just about anything, from standard prints and greeting cards to photo books and calendars.Two of Rochester’s major employers, Eastman Kodak Co. and Xerox Corp., are banking on such photo kiosks to churn out big bucks for them. The two companies are in Las Vegas this week for the Photo Marketing Association’s 2008 international trade show, the photo imaging industry’s annual confab. Both hope to make a big splash in a rapidly growing field.The specialty photo printing market — including everything from calendars to customized trading cards — is expected to grow nearly 25 percent a year through 2010, hitting $800 million in revenue, according to the market research firm InfoTrends.A 2007 report on the U.S. photo industry by PMA Marketing Research found that the photo book market was on course to triple in size from 2005, with expectations for even more growth in 2008.

    Xerox will share a booth at the trade show with partner Fujifilm USA, a subsidiary of Japanese photo giant Fujifilm Corp., as they pitch such products as a Fuji photo kiosk using a Xerox Phaser or DocuColor printer.This week, Xerox also announced its new “Picture Me Profitable Kit” — a collection of guides, templates and reference materials for photo labs and retailers to help them design and produce specialty photo products they can then turn out on Xerox printers.

    And FujiFilm announced earlier this month that the Ritz Camera Centers chain, with roughly 1,000 sites nationwide, would start using Xerox Phaser 7760 color laser printers to produce photo books, calendars and greeting cards through the in-store kiosks or the Ritz Web site.

    Kodak, meanwhile, is unveiling a variety of products at the trade show, including its DL2100 printer for use in photo kiosks to turn consumers’ digital photos into two-sided calendars, photo books and greeting cards immediately instead of necessitating a return visit for pickup.The company also will introduce its G4X kiosk, which, when paired with a DVD burner, can turn out a DVD featuring photos and music from original artists in a few minutes.With 90,000 locations nationwide, Kodak dominates the photo kiosk market, said Rowan Lawson, worldwide marketing director for Kodak’s retail systems solutions.The lineup of companies in Las Vegas reads like a who’s who in digital imaging, including Hewlett-Packard Co., Nikon Inc. and Sony Electronics Inc.”PMA is a great opportunity to stand out,” Lawson said.”All of the right people, whether they’re big customers down to small … stores, they’re all there.”

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