Wal-Mart replaces its Kodak photo kiosks with HP
Posted at: 03/05/2010 1:02 PM | Updated at: 03/05/2010 7:14 PM
A story in the Wall Street Journal says Wal-Mart is quietly replacing its Kodak photo kiosks with those of competitor Hewlett-Packard. the HP photo machines are called "Prints in Minutes."
Being Kodaks home town, some may see this as a black eye for Kodak. Especially since chairman and CEO Antonio Perez was brought in from Hewlett-Packard to oversee Kodaks digital transformation.
Joanna Caldwell just got her honeymoon pictures back from using the photo kiosk at Wal-Mart. Yeah, you know what, price is still a factor to tell you the honest truth.
Caldwell doesn't just print her pictures at Wal-Mart. She taught the Kodak digital print production software to photo labs and knows Kodak's reputation for quality. But as a consumer she says, So I'd like to be loyal to Kodak, but in the end if I have a high volume of pictures, it's probably going to come down to more of the price, and then a close second would be the quality.
Kodak says Wal-Mart's decision is in no way a reflection on the quality of its produces or services.
George Conboy of Brighton Securities, a photo enthusiast himself, isn't so sure. the unfortunate thing is this is not a good thing for Kodak. when you talk about 8,000 store locations they are losing.
Conboy says Kodak isn't king of the jungle anymore that it was with traditional chemical photography. Kodak traditionally competed against other photo companies, not technology companies. In that jungle where they competed against photo companies, Kodak was the lion. In the new jungle, there are a lot more lions and they're a lot bigger than Kodak.
Then there is Wal-Mart customer Tim Paige, who doesn't use Wal-Mart to print his digital pictures. I go to Rite Aid because it's just more convenient for me. It's just where I've been doing it and I'm happy with them.
We checked around and found that local Rite Aid Walgreens stores use Fuji photo kiosks. Some Target stores in our area use Kodak photo stations.
Kodak says this is old news that was announced last year. the company says it is still the number one seller of digital cameras at Wal-Mart. And the company is the leading seller of photo order stations with more than 100,000 Kodak kiosks worldwide.
For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.
Wal-Mart replaces its Kodak photo kiosks with HP
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