HP has announced that Walmart is rolling out the HP “Prints in Minutes” retail publishing service in 3,600 of its stores across the United States.
By the end of the summer, U.S. customers of Walmart will be able to “take advantage of a fast, high-quality photo print service as well as a broad array of personalized printed merchandise, such as calendars and greetings cards, and access to images from brands such as Nickelodeon, Warner Bros. and Live Nation,” HP said in a released statement.
This rollout in Walmart stores, along with incremental growth in other retailers’ stores, marks a more than 300 percent growth of HP’s global retail publishing presence in 2010. Over the last year, HP has expanded its customer portfolio through agreements with leading retailers such as Tesco, Rossmann, Duane Reade and Kmart Australia.
“Our agreement with Walmart is another milestone in HP’s drive to help retailers transition from traditional photo services to dynamic publishing centers,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “With new customer agreements with many major global retailers, including Tesco, Kmart Australia and now Walmart, we’re bringing consumers new opportunities to conveniently print both personal and branded digital content that is meaningful to them.”
The system is powered by the compact and efficient HP Photosmart pm2000e Microlab printer for lab-quality photo output. The service also includes HP’s patented photo book technology, which delivers a “pinch-book” assembly feature rather than a glue system. This eliminates the need for additional finishing equipment and provides the customer with the flexibility to change or add pages to their photo book at any time. Other products include flat photo cards, year-on-a-page calendars and photo CDs.
