News

Nat'l pharmacy first to plan mobile-image printing on kiosks

December 3, 2003

WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- CVS/pharmacy will in early 2004 introduce mobile-image printing capabilities at Kodak Picture Maker kiosks at more than 3,000 stores nationwide.

According to a news release, the service will make CVS the first national retailer to offer customers the ability to print pictures from their image-enabled mobile phones.

Earlier this year, CVS successfully introduced "Pictures from your Digital Camera" from Kodak Picture Maker kiosks, enabling customers to produce photo-quality prints from digital media including camera cards, CDs and disks. The service provides customers with a simple, fast and affordable way to print digital images, the release noted.

Enhancements to the Kodak Picture Maker kiosks will allow mobile camera phone users to beam their images to the kiosk using Bluetooth or infrared technologies. Customers can then edit, enhance, and print their photos in minutes.

"CVS continues to be a retail leader in the move to digital," said Judy Strauss Sansone, vice president of merchandising/photo for CVS. "The ability to walk in to your corner CVS/pharmacy and quickly print photos directly from your mobile phone is the next wave of retail digital photo services. The wireless capability of the Kodak Picture Maker kiosk also makes digital imaging easier for our busy customers."

In addition to the wireless option, customers will still have the choice of inserting a memory card into the kiosk. The Kodak Picture Maker kiosks currently accept CompactFlash cards, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, xD, multimedia card formats, Picture CDs, picture disks, and beginning this spring, the kiosks will also accept Memory Stick Pro. The kiosk will support .jpg, .bmp and .tif files.

At the kiosk, customers will use a touchscreen to preview and select only the photos they want to print, choose sizes and quantities, and make image enhancements such as red-eye reduction. Prints will be ready for pick-up upon checkout. New 3 x 4-inch and 1.5-inch, and 2-inch photo prints will be available from the enhanced kiosks.