News

Acquisition strengthens SMO's market position

September 30, 2004

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - SMO Multimedia has finalized the acquisition of Kiosk Exchange of Plantation, Fla. Kiosk Exchange, originally created to provide the first online meeting place for buyers and sellers of public Internet terminals, currently offers other types of kiosks and vending solutions, and it has expanded its efforts into other areas of the growing self-service markets such as digital photography.

One of the Kiosk Exchange's core products is the creation and integration of a technologically advanced digital photo kiosk solution called EZPIX, an instant digital photo kiosk solution that is being marketed internationally. Customers can instantly produce digital prints, scan, burn CDs or save their images to the Internet. According to Francine Mendelsohn of Summit Research Associates, "Digital photo kiosk solutions are one of the fastest-growing sectors of the retail self-service kiosk industry."

Walt Reilly, president of Kiosk Exchange, said, "With the technical and financial backing of SMO and the marketing abilities of the Kiosk Exchange, we believe we can far exceed our short term expansion plans and become the dominant full-service providers in the digital photo industry."

Other research from InfoTrends Research Group suggests that photo kiosk sales are expected to demonstrate a CAGR of 16 percent from 2002 to 2007. InfoTrends' forecast shows that input terminal kiosks are beginning to proliferate as a front-end to digital minilabs, and print station kiosks are a critical bridge to the digital world where digital minilabs do not yet exist.

"The photo kiosk and digital minilab markets continue to be strong as major retail chains gear up for the influx of digital camera users over the next few years," said Kerry Flatley, a senior research analyst at InfoTrends Research Group.