Issue #0607/1 - TCPglobal has featured several articles in recent months about Hewlett-Packard’s focus on retail photo printing. We now see more developments in the drive towards ‘world domination’.
Not only has Hewlett-Packard launched two retail photo printing solutions but has also introduced video storage capabilities to Snapfish. At aggressive per print rates for buying hard copies from Snapfish, there remains little justification for attempting to print bulk photos on home inkjet printers, reserving that capability for printing personalised images in larger print sizes or for instant prints.
In addition, the company has linked up with British Telecom in the UK to promote and drive broadband internet access.
After pulling the plug on the joint ‘Phogenix’ development with Kodak three years ago, Hewlett-Packard has announced a kiosk solution, Photosmart Express Station, which allows digital photographers to obtain their prints in-store at a rate of one every 5 seconds (700 per hour).
Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president at Hewlett-Packard’s Imaging and Printing Group, summarises the introduction, “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. The breadth and innovation required here is what HP does best.”
In reality, this development ensures extra visibility for Hewlett-Packard and that the name will become even more synonymous with digital imaging and photo printing. The development could also have interesting repercussions for Hewlett-Packard in terms of consumer printer choice for home photo printing.
Hewlett-Packard certainly aims to ensure that the kiosks are to be found in the widest possible range of retail locations in addition to traditional supermarket, drug store/chemist and photo speciality stores. These may include mass-merchandisers, electronics stores, office product stores and others.
No pricing or cost information is available at this point but Photosmart Express Station is claimed to offer several major benefits to retailers.
Although a similar size to typical dye-sublimation based retail kiosk units, Hewlett-Packard claims that Photosmart Express Station could be as much as six times more efficient on space and up to 40% more profitable per square foot of store space used.
Profitability is partly down to the fact that supplies capacity is around ten times that of dye-sublimation units, meaning fewer interventions to replenish supplies, but also to the fact that the unit is networked, allowing all software maintenance and upgrades, usage and status reporting and pricing and promotional adjustments to be made remotely. In this way, a corporate headquarters can monitor and update all units with pricing and promotions without the local store having to do anything other than replenish supplies.
3,300-sheet capacityHewlett-Packard’s Scalable Printing Technology (SPT) utilises a manufacturing process for the printheads that involves a photolithographic process. This process allows far great accuracy (sub-micron) of nozzle positioning in the printhead and allows for the manufacture of much larger printheads.
Thus, the dream of having cost-effective, full-page inkjet printeads at a high enough resolution for photo printing is finally a reality. Up to now, since launch last summer, SPT printheads have only been used in desktop printers where traditional moving printhead configurations have been used.
Now however, at 4.25 inches wide (108mm), the static printhead used in the Photosmart Express Station is around four times the size of any previous generation inkjet printheads – with prospects for producing full A4 sized heads in due course. The head has a massive 10,560 nozzles, capable of firing not far short of a billion ink drops per second (maintaining the Moore’s Law progression for inkjet printheads) from the three printheads required to drive the unit (two colours per head)!
With 5,280 nozzles per colour, the native resolution of the stationary printhead is 1,200dpi – more than enough for a glossy photograph and the printhead is wide enough for 6×4 (10×15) format photographs!
However, the huge benefit of this type/size of printhead is the very fact that it allows the printhead itself to remain stationary while the media moves beneath it – meaning that print speed is vastly increased. No longer are we talking in terms of quoted print speed at draft print quality but a borderless glossy photograph produced at full resolution in just 5 seconds.
4×6 (10×15)Prints in 5 seconds
means >700 prints/hour
World domination now puts Hewlett-Packard with major interests in home photo printing, business photo printing, professional photo printing, professional graphic arts photo printing, industrial photo printing, self-serve retail photo printing, online retail photo storage, viewing and printing and also self-driven creative studio photo printing. Hewlett-Packard also has a wide range of digital cameras to suit the needs of every consumer and most amateur photo-enthusiasts, stopping short only of pro-sumer and professional equipment.
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