HP photo kiosks to dot countryside

Hewlett-Packard (HP) Retail Photo Solutions, a part of its web services and software business, is planning to launch photo-printing and imaging kiosks and shop-in-shops at retail outlets in multiplexes, departmental stores and movie theatres all over the country.

Planning to tap the Tier -II and-III towns, the company is hoping to transform retailers' traditional photo labs into an upgraded digital publishing centres offering rich digital media solutions, such as photo books, posters, calendars and other creative photo products.

Rich Duncombe, vice-president (Retail Photo Solutions), HP Worldwide, said, "We have more than 100 retail partnerships worldwide and, in India, we will announce our retail partners and web services in a couple of months."

Globally, HP houses its Photosmart Express kiosks in supermarkets, while Wal-Mart houses its more innovative Photosmart Studio kiosks.

"Indians create around four billion images annually, which is better than Australians who generate only around 1.5 billion," said Duncombe. He plans to have HP's presence in 3,000 retail stores by 2010.

"At present, less than 20 per cent of the pictures taken by Indians get printed. As per a Gartner report, the Indian photo printing market was worth $110 million last year, and expected to grow at 20-22 per cent per annum," he said.

HP is also aiming to increase photo printing up to 50-60 per cent by offering ease of printing over the web through Snapfish, an online photo service, at retail corners and at home through compact printers.

The Snapfish Website will also offer free unlimited photo storage space and photo sharing. Photo sharing has become very popular among internet users in the last two years.

"The printing price for a small-sized digital print will be as low at Rs 2.95. The current price for the same size varies from Rs 5-8 across various photo studios in India," said Duncombe.

V Narayanan, director (Retail Photo Solutions), HP Asia-Pacific, elaborated, "We will facilitate our retail partners with the new HP Photo Centre "� a scalable and space-efficient digital print solution designed to easily plug into a retailer's existing lab infrastructure."

Meanwhile, HP is not just looking to print photographs.

"The retail emphasis will be on production of personalised photo books, calendars, greeting cards and other published consumer content that is more appealing than mere stacks of 4x6 inch pictures," said Narayanan.

To expand its retail footprint, HP is considering business models that include sharing the initial set-up costs for its photo-printing equipments and also a shared expertise model, where retailers would purchase the printing solution and HP would provide trained personnel and in-house photographers. HP's imaging and printing group's (IPG) revenues grew 4 per cent to $7.3 billion.