COLOGNE, Germany, September 24, 2002 - Eastman Kodak Company launched today at Photokina an expanded family of Kodak Picture Maker solutions that will offer increased retail photo services for consumers, as well as drive in-store digital printing revenue for retailers.
Kodak has reinvented its kiosk family with a simplified, modular approach that provides the flexibility retailers need to scale according to volume, grow high-margin consumer photo offerings and connect these photo offerings to a variety of imaging equipment through a common hardware and software platform. Driven by a consistent consumer interface, the Kodak Picture Maker family includes three modular stations: the Picture Maker Order Station, Picture Maker Digital Station and Picture Maker Print Station.
The new Kodak Picture Maker family builds upon Picture Maker’s continued success, providing consumers with more imaging options and more access points to the world of Kodak picture services. Attractive to digital camera users, people in search of gift ideas and those who want to be more creative with their pictures, each station in the Picture Maker family enables a wide range of new consumer applications.
“Retailers have a tremendous opportunity with the new Picture Maker family to offer consumers an expanded range of do-it-yourself picture solutions that will continue to drive repeat traffic to the retail environment and generate profit,” said David K. Jones, Worldwide Product Line manager, Kiosks and Consumer Imaging, Kodak. “With this announcement, Kodak is expanding the market reach of Picture Maker and widening the placement potential for the Kodak Picture Maker family - now anywhere people want access to Kodak picture services.”
The Expanded Picture Maker Family
The expanded Picture Maker family starts with the Order Station, which enables consumers to preview and select their analogue or digital images and print them to a retailer’s on-site digital lab system. If a retailer wants the ability to have their customer print digital images in just minutes, they can upgrade their Order Station to a Digital Station by adding a 4x6 printer. If their customer has a need to scan and print images up to 8x10, a retailer can upgrade to a fully featured Print Station by adding a flatbed scanner and Kodak 8110 printer. Each of these products in the Picture Maker family can be purchased individually, or a retailer can upgrade from one to the next as their business needs change.
Kodak Picture Maker Order Station
The Kodak Picture Maker Order Station opens up a variety of imaging choices, giving them the opportunity to preview and select their analogue or digital images and have them fulfilled onsite through the retailer’s digital lab. The Order Station writes to a CD and features a touch-screen monitor that allows users to view thumbnails of their pictures, zoom and crop, reduce red-eye and adjust brightness.
Kodak Picture Maker Digital Station
With a speed of 25-seconds per print, the Kodak Picture Maker Digital Station will allow consumers to print from digital memory cards, CDs, or floppy disks with JPEG images - faster than ever before. Consumers can simply walk up to this kiosk and insert their memory cards, CD or floppy disk, and gain access to a touch-screen monitor with an intuitive user interface. It accepts the most common memory card formats, including CompactFlash, Smart Media cards, Memory Stick, MMC and Secure Digital. The Picture Maker Digital Station allows consumers to zoom/crop, eliminate red-eye, adjust colors and print photo-quality 4x6 thermal prints onto top quality Kodak paper. It also allows consumers to write images to a Kodak Picture CD. When the consumer is finished, they will soon have the option to pay for the entire transaction by credit card.
Kodak Picture Maker Print Station
As the full service member of the Picture Maker family, the Print Station brings all the functionality of the Order Station and Digital Station to the original Picture Maker. Offering reprints and enlargements up to 8x10 from original prints (without the need for negatives), consumers can make great pictures from almost any source even better in just 5 minutes. And consumers can print these pictures to a wide variety of digital printers, enabling high-volume and unique format printing in-store.
The Picture Maker Print Station accepts original prints, CD, floppy or digital media and offers popular edit and enhancement features. Its newly enhanced digital media printing capability makes it easier and faster than ever before to print digital camera images or write them to a Kodak Picture CD. It will also enable consumers to preview and select their favourite digital images, and print them at the kiosk or at the retailer’s digital lab.
A Future Vision
As the picture kiosk category grows, Kodak sees it transitioning into a much broader category that it calls APM or Automated Picture Machines.
This solution is modeled on the concept of cash point machines which are located anywhere a consumer needs to get cash quickly. The APM concept is being launched in an effort to make photography as convenient as possible for the consumer and as a result, the number of APMs for photos may one day rival those of cash point machines for banking.
The introduction of the APM category represents an important development in Kodak’s approach to picture kiosks as it explores various venues to bring Picture Makers to where consumers take their pictures. These include venues where the consumer is now purchasing digital cameras, film and photography accessories, as well as non-traditional photo channels, such as hotels, airports and other high-traffic picture-taking venues.
Benefits to the Retailer
For retailers the benefits of the expanded Picture Maker family are clear:
- Strong brand name.
- Significant marketing investment to drive consumer demand.
- Software designed to meet the changing needs of today’s consumer.
- Solutions that can grow with a retailer’s business needs.
- Connectivity to on-site products and services.
- Support service option for unit replacement and provision of service help desk.
(Kodak and Picture Maker are trade marks of Eastman Kodak Company.)