New instant print kiosks

While the major photography and printing brands – Kodak, Epson, HP – have developed their own digital photo printing kiosks over the past few years, an Australian start-up is convinced that it can grab a good share of a highly competitive market that HP has estimated to be worth USD 7.7 billion by 2009 (including photo mini-labs). Pxi has developed a self-contained, full-service kiosk that offers photo printing, editing, storing and online sharing. Unlike other kiosks, which are usually placed within stores, Pxi is focusing on malls and other busy public spaces – airports, train stations, universities and hospitals. The company’s other main advantages over its competition are printing speed and quick customer turnaround aided by a user-friendly interface and incorporated payment systems that accept all credit and debit cards (many in-store kiosks require that customers pay at the counter after printing their pictures). Pxi kiosks will soon also be able to bill printing charges directly to a customer’s mobile phone. The photo printers can pop out pictures in as little as 3 seconds, and Pxi claims to produce better quality prints than other kiosks, too. Another innovation is the ability to send barcode coupons to any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone within 10-20 meters reach, which is a smart way to capture the attention of digital photographers aimlessly wandering through malls or airport terminals. Pxi kiosks read the barcodes and offer customers a few free prints. During a test phase, most customers who received a barcode went on to print more photos from their camera-phones and digital cameras. Pxi will be franchising up to 2,000 kiosks across its native Australia over the next five years, has signed a licensing deal for 35,000 kiosks in China, and is working on similar deals for Japan and Canada. For those of you interested in incremental streams of income, Pxi is interested in hearing from potential franchisees from across the world.