As the imaging and wireless industries continue getting better acquainted, we are seeing more and more stories of how the two are beginning to work together. The concept of getting prints from camera phones has been a foreign one to both sides of this equation. Most imaging dealers have never really considered the devices a serious picture-taking tool and the most wireless locations have never considered photo prints a big part of their users’ experience.
Alex Aladort, Platinum Wireless’ Director of Business Development, will quickly admit that photo printing services simply weren’t on his radar. Platinum actually acts in much the same manner as distributors do in the imaging industry, as middlemen for wireless locations in U.S. When Sony introduced him to their SnapLab he thought, “Pretty cool,” but when they demo’d the unit’s Bluetooth capability, “The light bulb went off over my head.”
After Aladort took out his Blackberry and sent his images to the Bluetooth-enabled SnapLab and eyed prints seconds later he thought, “How many cell phone customers do the locations I deal with have that are upgrading phones and haven’t been able to do anything with all the images they have on the old phone?”
The answer was quite a few as days later Aladort was sending Sony purchase orders for over 200 SnapLabs and many of the locations are reporting tremendous excitement from their customers over the ability to get prints from the camera phones in these locations.
“It’s a different environment than a drug store or mass merchant location,” Aladort explained. “These customers are hanging out with the owners and discussing and printing their images together.”
The bottom line to this Blutetooth-enabled tale is the fact many in the imaging industry have always felt the camera phone shooter had no interest in getting prints – that the pictures they shot were simply fleeting moments, not captured with the intent to permanently record the moment. Aladort claims his customers feel far differently. “Make no mistake about this, getting prints from a camera phone is a big deal to the cell phone/wireless industry and these customers want prints – they want to print the images they are capturing, no question, and the cell phone store owners want to be able offer them this service.”
Check out the May issue of Picture Business for much more on ways the imaging industry is attempting to take advantage of the popularity of camera phones and the huge potential these and other wireless devices hold for the retail print market.
