Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In our Walmart, just five years ago, the largest in the world, (we were so proud) they have recently reduced the film and accessories area by more than half. In place are color ink jet printers, and digital storage devices on cards where many choices of film once hung. They have both a scanning kiosk, and a self service digital kiosk, that you order your pix from, using your memory card. Come back in an hour, and get your prints. They also have onlin upload service, but they mail your prints. I expect to have store delivery soon. SonC - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Dory" <dorysrus@mindspring.com> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 10:18 PM Subject: [Leica] Digital usage > The major photo retailers are working their a------ off to make getting > pictures from digital cameras easy. Why? Roll counts are dropping by > double digit percentages and if they can not replace lost business in > developing film with making pictures from digital files then they are dead > meat. It is no secret in the industry that the profits were in film(and > paper and chemistry) for the manufacturers and in processing film and making > prints for the shops. > > Sometime in July you will be able to e-mail your digital files to major > retailers and pick up your pictures within four hours at literally your > choice of hundreds of locations. Polaroid has a neat little kiosk that can > make 24 prints from your digital file in a couple of minutes. You can find > someone's kiosk just about everywhere to make prints from your digital > files. > > Don't delude yourself that film will be around for a long time. Right now > more than 90% of all cameras sold in the US are digital, excluding > disposables. I suspect that next year sometime you will start to notice > that film is not at the check out line of your local grocery, and that the > giant warehouse stores have moved a smaller selection of film to the back > corner somewhere. I think that sometime next year you will see the one hour > labs start to disappear from drug stores as the roll counts drop so far that > they can not afford the square footage to a loss leader. We have in fact > reached the critical trifecta of good enough quality, availability of output > options, and marketing buzz where film is a walking dead product. Yes, we > all will still be able to buy film, but just like buggy whips, way out of > the way or mail order. > > To keep this on topic, Leica as a niche player with a fairly loyal customer > base, will survive in some shape or another just as you can still buy a > buggy for your horse to pull. However, if they can not develop or rebadge a > digital highish end product then we will all seem to be collectors of Colt > revolvers: still potent devices but largely irrelevant to anyone outside the > club. > > This time 0.05 > > Don > dorysrus@mindspring.com > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html