Kodak's retail innovation widens customer choice

The US imaging giant claims that the advanced system will let shops offer customers a wide selection of photo products - from pictures to photobooks, calendars and greeting cards.

Kodak has 460 express labs in Thailand.

Paul Johns, regional marketing director of consumer digital imaging, said last week that the launch was part of Kodak's plan to win over Asia's retail photolab market by offering hardware and software that are easy to use and affordable.

The company is upbeat, as it estimates that in the region, defined as Asia and the Pacific ex-Japan, sales of digital cameras will grow by 15.3 per cent this year, from 21 million last year, and by 10 per cent next year.

The regional market is forecast to see sales of 1.55 billion mobile phones with a digital camera function in 2010, up from a little over 1 billion last year.

In the region, 18 billion pictures were printed from film rolls in 2004, 910 million pictures printed from digital cameras but none printed from camera phones.

Kodak estimates that next year camera phones will contribute over 2 billion prints and digital cameras almost 6 billion, while prints from film cameras will decline to 2.8 billion.

In 2010, camera phones will contribute 8 billion prints, followed by 6.9 billion prints from digital cameras, and only 838 million from film.

Before, camera-phone users did not bother with prints, given the low resolution, Johns said. But now phones come with higher megapixel cameras.