Kodak digital photo kiosks to be showcased at Photokina

Press Release:
Helping retailers of all sizes compete more effectively in the rapidly expanding digital printing market, Eastman Kodak Company today announced a new award-winning software platform for its innovative line of digital printing kiosks, along with powerful new features that help consumers to print more while driving improved retailer efficiency.

“Kodak is dedicated to helping its retail partners take advantage of the booming digital printing market by offering innovative, intelligent yet easy to apply and use retail printing options,” said Nicki Zongrone, General Manager, Worldwide Kiosk Systems and Services, and Vice President, Consumer Digital Imaging group, Eastman Kodak Company. “The advancements announced today work on new and most existing kiosk models, which shows our level of commitment to retailers by helping them drive improved efficiency and profitability from their fleets, while delivering more fun and easy to use solutions to consumers that generate more business.”

New Kodak Picture Kiosk G4 Software, V1.1 brings to the table a host of features specifically designed to maximise the return on hardware investment for retailers and elevate the consumer experience. Opening additional revenue streams beyond the typical 4x6-inch print, Kodak Picture Kiosk G4 Software, V1.1 now provides functionality to create photographic specialty products such as greeting cards, calendars and collages instantly from the kiosk without any additional hardware expense. In addition a new “shopping cart” feature with an intuitive up-sell mechanism allows retailers to customise the consumer buying experience and drive incremental sales of enhanced prints and enlargements - all delivered easily and printed in seconds for the consumer.

With its new streamlined user interface, the new Kodak Picture Kiosk G4 Software, V1.1 significantly simplifies the consumer experience, shortening the ordering process and increasing customer satisfaction. This software also delivers significantly increased system performance, with processing speed increases of up to 50% over previous platforms, allowing for a greater volume of orders, less waiting between screens and therefore less consumer queuing. Earlier this month, Kodak Picture Kiosk G4 Software, V1.1 was recognised with the inaugural CeBIT Usability Award 2006. Awarded to only one product each year, this prestigious honour is given to the most usable and user-friendly product, and emphasises intuitive navigation that is geared to its target audience.

Kodak Remote Business Manager Software Now Available
Kodak Remote Business Manager software, first announced last year, is now available for installation on thousands of new and existing Kodak Picture Maker kiosks worldwide. Key retailers across the globe have already committed to and are already installing - and benefiting - from this important new technology.

Harnessing the power of the Esprida Enterprise platform, retailers can use this new, networked infrastructure to further drive efficiency and profitability from their Kodak equipment. By using a centralised remote management system, Kodak can provide flexible business management services allowing easy deployment of a variety of marketing, sales, and advertising programmes through individual kiosks or groups of kiosks from one location. In addition, the system delivers centralised daily collections of production data with ready access to reports within a secure, proven environment. Retailers can benefit from service and support that monitors and controls in-store equipment, performs diagnostics, and executes repairs, thereby minimising equipment downtime and staff intervention.

New DVD Writer/Dispenser
The next generation of DVD and CD writers/dispensers are now available for use with Kodak kiosks. Providing a fast and effective solution for self-service consumer CD authoring, this new version requires minimal interaction from store personnel due to both its simple plug and play installation and its improved system reliability. And for the first time, this model has the ability to author DVDs, allowing consumers to store more pictures on one disc, and preparing retailers for the future as DVD technology becomes more widespread. Also, with a significantly lower hardware cost than the previous Kodak hardware, retailers can enjoy a quicker return of investment without compromising performance.

About Kodak Kiosks
The self-service Kodak Picture Kiosks and Kodak Picture Maker digital photo kiosks produce lab-quality pictures in seconds from just about any digital camera memory card, including: SD cards, MMC, CompactFlash, Smartmedia, Memory Stick, and xD picture cards. Additionally, all Kodak Picture Kiosks and more than half of currently installed Kodak Picture Maker digital print kiosks offer consumers mobile printing capabilities from their camera phone or other wirelessly enabled devices using Bluetooth or infrared technologies.

The kiosks also allow consumers to save their digital images and create “digital negatives” on a Kodak Picture CD. The consumer-friendly touch screen lets consumers preview, select and print the exact digital images they want and zoom, crop, adjust brightness and reduce red eye to create exceptional quality borderless 4x6-inch pictures in seconds. Kodak RRPs range from 29p to 49p depending on the number of prints.