HP Photosmart Studio : HP today marked its entrance into the retail photo-printing market with the introduction of an in-store photo studio that will be rolled out in top-tier retail chains nationwide. The HP Photosmart Studio is the first and only in-store solution where consumers can design creative products in about five minutes – without having to crop or place photos into individual templates – and pick them up in one hour or less. The HP Photosmart Studio, announced in anticipation of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show to be held in Orlando, open the doors to a significantly more profitable photofinishing business for retailers while offering their customers improved flexibility and speed in printing photos.
HP photo printing market
“We’re leveraging our photo-printing leadership in the home to drive down the cost for retailers and to bring consumers more choice than they’ve ever had in stores,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “The breadth and innovation required here is what HP does best.” Targeting the $35 billion-plus retail photo-printing market, HP will work with retail partners to roll out thousands of HP photo solutions in a wide variety of locations, such as mass merchan-disers, club stores, supermarkets, drug stores, photo specialty stores, electronics stores, office product stores and less traditional photo service locations.
HP Photosmart Studio
HP’s retail photo solutions offer consumers the best way to get high-quality prints and creative projects from their digital cameras at retail locations where they already shop. The HP Photosmart Studio is the first in-store solution on the market developed to help consumers transform anywhere from one to 200 images into ready-to-share albums, calendars, CDs, greeting cards and posters in less than an hour. Simple and quick to use, the process does not require people to select, crop or place photos into templates on each individual page. Instead, hundreds of photos are laid out in minutes using proprietary image management algorithms developed by HP Labs.
HP Photosmart Studio - New digital photo experience
The HP Photosmart Studio offers retailers an effective way to drive incremental sales and margins in existing photo departments, while delighting customers with new digital photo experiences. HP estimates that a typical photo center can boost a store’s returns from photo-finishing by up to 50 percent on a sustained basis. Unlike many “one-size-fits-all” photo labs, the HP Photosmart Studio is completely configurable and scalable to meet the unique needs of retailers. In addition to providing a customizable, in-store solution, HP is also offering retailers a robust online photo service experience via the HP Snapfish infrastructure.
HP Photosmart Studio - Photo Stores
Albertsons, Longs Drugs Stores, Bashas’ Supermarkets and specialty photo stores Dan’s Camera City in Allentown, Pa., and Rush Hour Photo and Wireless in Corvallis, Ore., will be among the first to feature the photo-printing solutions at select stores.
About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business computing, imaging & printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended Jan. 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $87.9 billion.
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