SanDisk and Photo-Me Bring Digital Photography to the Mass Consumer Market
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 9, 2000-- SanDisk Corporation and Photo-Me International today announced that they have formed a joint venture which will allow millions of digital camera owners to obtain digital prints easily, quickly, and inexpensively without the necessity of a personal computer or a high quality printer.
The new joint venture, called Digital Portal Inc. (DPI), will manufacture kiosks (self vending digital photo labs) and place them for consumer use in North America and other regions of the world. The two companies believe that the joint venture will give consumers low cost, high quality photo prints of digitally captured images and thereby enhance significantly the instant gratification that digital photography offers. It also will simplify the digital camera experience for users by expanding the options available for printing digital images. Deployment of the kiosks, which will bear the SanDisk name, is expected to start by the end of this year.
The kiosks will be the world's first silver halide process self service kiosks. The kiosks will enable digital camera owners to quickly, conveniently and inexpensively obtain prints by inserting their digital film flash memory cards, floppy disks or CD ROMs into the kiosks. Consumers also will be able to upload their personal files of digital pictures either from the kiosk or from their home PC to the DPI Internet site where the photos can be accessed by friends and relatives. An individual in New York City, for example, could upload pictures of a family celebration to the DPI web site and a relative in San Francisco could visit his local kiosk, download the file under a unique user pass key and select what pictures to print while he or she waits.
The kiosks bring five critical elements: First, superb photo quality, made possible by the PMI patented LCD Booster technology, which provides a picture resolution of 15 million pixels, far in excess of the resolution of any digital camera. Second, high quality silver halide processing, the same process as used in 1 hour print services. Third, a simple, interactive and user friendly interface which will personalize the print selection process in a way not possible with over the counter 1 hour photo printing services. Fourth, a price per print matching that of 1 hour prints today while outputting the first 4 x 6 print in less than three minutes and with an additional fifteen seconds for each subsequent print. Fifth, web connectivity to allow the user to share the digital photo experience.
