Research and Markets: Burgeoning Population of Self-Service Print Kiosks
Aim to Provide Digital Camera Users the Same Near-Instant Print Gratification
They Are Accustomed to With Film Camera
Research and Markets has announced the addition of
Kiosks and Print Services for Consumer Digital Photography to their
offering.
The photofinishing industry and its suppliers are
currently engaged in a crucial campaign to provide simple, accessible, and
affordable methods for mass market consumers to make prints from their digital
camera photos -- before these new users fall into the same "non-printing"
behaviors demonstrated by early adopters of digital
photography.
A burgeoning population of
self-service print Kiosks and other retail fulfillment services aim to provide
digital camera users the same near-instant print gratification they are
accustomed to with film camera. For Kiosks alone, the recent PMA shootout
featured twenty-two different units from thirteen competing
vendors.
Despite this broad participation
on the supply side, the outcome is hardly an open-and-shut case. Among the key
questions today:
- Are these new
offerings compelling enough in terms of price, quality and
convenience?
- Is the industry moving
fast enough to deploy its solutions, and to generate awareness of their
existence and benefits?
- Can users who
have grown accustomed to the self-printing -- or no- printing -- model be
reclaimed by the photofinishing industry, and what will it take to do
so?
- What are users' motivations for
producing hard-copy prints, and can they be sustained going
forward?
This report benchmarks these
issues through a two-pronged approach:
-
Vendor interviews regarding the status of their current rollout, their resulting
observations, and their intentions going
forward.
- User surveys measuring
awareness of service-based printing solutions, perception of the value
proposition of these solutions, and current and future
behaviors.
Vendor research was conducted
in the form of a "round-table"-style interview with key executives from the
leading suppliers -- both established large players, and startups: Eastman
Kodak, Pixology, Pixel Magic, Silverwire, and Sony. Topics covered include
Customer Awareness; Installations and Configurations; Print Sizes, Methods, and
Prices.
A user survey asks early adopters
about the obstacles they've encountered in printing their digital photos, their
current printing preferences, and their motivations to print images. The results
-- analyzed through over 40 figures and graphs - identify key obstacles the
photofinishing industry must overcome in order to maintain a supplier
relationship with the new mass majority of users coming to digital
photography.
The report also includes 100
pages of kiosk company spotlights and profiles excepted from recent monthly
issues of The Future Image Report featuring interviews with executives from
Kodak, Fuji, Pixel Magic Imaging, Sony, Pixology, HP, Phogenix, PhotoAccess,
Ofoto, EZ Prints, Bignose/Personalization Station, Epson, Bellamax, Confoti, and
MyPublisher; as well as a selection of news stories on photo printers and
photofinishing.
For more
information
visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18900
Posted: Thu - June 9, 2005 at 11:06 PM