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Online print options for camera print processing
Ilse Jurriën : December 15th 2005 - 15:45 CET
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 Myphotopipe.com print options for digital cameras : Launched in April of 2005, Myphotopipe.com, designed to smoothly upload digital photos from your hard drive and turn them into colorful prints, today announced the completion of the national rollout of its 94 Print Options for owners of digital cameras using online web sites for print processing. Targeted towards serious amateurs and professional photographers, 94 Print Options tested for three months to exceptionally strong results. "Since the launch of 94 Options, our online business has tripled," said Myphotopipe.com Chairman David M. Ragland. "Catering to the high-end of the digital photo market has proven to be an attractive business model for us."
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 Standard photo print size
At the same time, Myphotopipe announced the Internet's largest standard photo print size - 4-foot-by-8-foot - and the fifth shipment of the oversized enlargement. Each photograph was taken using a digital camera and was processed on standard photographic paper. Each photograph takes 27 minutes to print. The 4,608-square-inch print lists for $245. "As much as the media writes about pricing and the commoditization of digital prints, the truth is, once you get past snapshots, the motivating factors change," said L. Douglas Keeney, company CEO. "An enlargement is tricky. A high-end print is in a category of its own. The Internet lets a photographer use us for the back-end but it's all about quality and service and choice and you can't commoditize that. That's why there has to be a dialogue. If we have that dialogue, we will earn our share of this $7 billion business and we will help our photographers make a financially attractive living."
94 Print Options - Snapshots
In the hotly contested battle between online services and retailers, the focus has been on the pricing of a 4-inch-by-6-inch snapshot. Every penny saved was vital to operating profitability and automation has been the key to managing costs, but automation created inflexibility and that conflicted with the needs of serious amateur and professional photographers. "Our business model is different. Our photographers don't fit into neat little boxes," said Pete Casabonne, President and Operations Manager. "They want their prints to be exactly what they see on their computer screens, and, to get that, we have to give them flexibility. We automate the printing but we customize the settings. That's what our 94 Options are all about; that's why our phones are answered by humans. We have to start the online process with dialogue. You don't need that to print a snapshot but it's vital when you're pushing the envelope for something eight feet long." Industry analysts estimate that there are 2.5 million serious amateur and professional photographers. While numbers vary, this segment accounts for as much as half of all prints purchased, on a dollar basis.
About Photopipe - Online print service
Myphotopipe.com was launched in April of 2005 when the founder and the CEO of US Wireless Online, Inc. partnered to acquire a controlling interest in Color Genesis, a 26-year-old photo print lab in Atlanta serving professional photographers. Their intent was to transition Color Genesis from a regional lab to a national lab. Photopipe was designed to smoothly upload digital photos from your hard drive and turn them into colorful prints, beautiful posters and impressive photo albums and gifts of all sorts - and deliver them right to your door. That's the Photopipe difference. A professional lab that watches over your photos from start to finish. Crystal clear prints. Free sharing. Imaginative photo gifts that you create. Hand inspections. All at professional pricing.
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