Posted on: Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Print photos on own or pay? It's a tossup
| • | Do prints at home, online, at stores |
By Robert Schoenberger
(Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
Richard White likes to control his digital photos. The manager at Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance carefully edits each before printing it to a photo-quality printer.
Pam Spaulding • Gannett News Service Christi Arnette, a Louisville medical lab worker, also likes to edit her photos, but she prefers to print them at a discount store because she thinks the quality is higher.
"I do all of my editing at home and burn (pictures) to a CD," Arnette said. Then, while she shops at Meijer, lab technicians print her photos. "They're usually done by the time I'm finished shopping."
Those are the options for those who shoot digitally — print it themselves or pay someone else to do it. It's created a competitive landscape that pits printer makers such as Lexington, Ky.-based Lexmark against drug and discount stores as well as traditional rivals such as Hewlett-Packard.
With the popularity of digital cameras growing rapidly, in-store services do not appear to have hurt printer sales.
"Photo has come in quietly and taken 39 percent of the (inkjet printer) market," Lexmark chief executive Paul Curlander said.
Lexmark, which launched its first three photo printers this fall, is late getting into the photo market; Kodak has had a portable photo printer out for more than a year. During the third quarter of this year, Kodak said home printer sales were up 37 percent.
That sales growth is especially important to Lexmark because the company makes most of its money on ink, not printers. Photo printers use significantly more ink than traditional printers because they leave little space on the page blank.
Lexmark's photo printers can match the 29 cent price per photo found at online services and stores, but that only includes the paper and the ink used, not the $149-$199 cost of the printer.
The big advantage to home printing is convenience. There's no trip to the store and users have more control, said White, the home-printing enthusiast.
White said he has used some store systems. "I would get it exactly how I wanted it on the computer, and their software would always change it just a little bit," he said.
While not as easy as having a technician do it for you, Lexmark says home printing is as straightforward as taking the picture.
"This is a pretty simple proposition for us," Lexmark consumer division president Najib Bahous said. "If we can make printing in the home easy for our customers, maybe they will buy more printers."
"I always liked the detail work," White said. "I loved working in the darkroom (when) I used to work with film."
Tiffany Ackerman, photo technician for Target in Louisville, Ky., creates photos from digital images retrieved from customers' memory cards or photo CDs. In-store services do not appear to have hurt printer sales despite the popularity of digital cameras.
| Do prints at home, online, at stores
People printing digital pictures have three options. Each costs less than 30 cents per 4-by-6-inch photo. • Home printer. Prices range from $149 to $199. The more expensive models include scanners that can copy paper photos. Pros: Quality control, convenience and versatility, because the printer can be used to print letters or scan documents. Cons: Price. Also, some inkjet inks do not last as long as the inks used at photo printing locations, although printer companies are marketing more permanent options. • Online services. Users upload their pictures to Web sites such as Shutterfly.com or Ofoto.com. They can then choose and order prints, which are mailed to them. Pros: No need to buy a printer. Friends and family members can order copies. You also can order pictures printed on coffee cups, sweatshirts and other products. Cons: Delivery time and cost ($1.49 for Ofoto to mail 10 pictures). • Store services. Users either send their pictures to stores via the Internet or download photos to computers at store labs. Pros: Editing available without home printer or computer, faster service (usually within one hour), longer-lasting prints. Cons: You have to go to the store to pick up your prints. — The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal |
