8 June 2006
Kodak will over shadow apples IPOD.
If Christchurch based photographic firm Hanafins have it right, they are onto the biggest news since the advent of
digital photography. Kodaks new high speed scanner, which can easily convert shoeboxes full of photographs into archived
high quality digital images in minutes, will over shadow even apples IPOD.
While only a fraction of people are interested in storing and listening to thousands of songs, every single house hold
has boxes and boxes of old photos. Until now there has been no convenient and affordable way to reproduce and share
these billions of images. A single scan used to cost between $3 to $5, now Hanafins can scan 1000 photos for just $99
and archive them to a 300 year gold CD or DVD.
The scanner is the first of its kind in New Zealand operating for this purpose, and only the 3rd in the world they are
aware of. The idea is so new that Kodak are still only running trials of the concept in New York, and had not even
realised the potential of there commercial document scanners until a retailer in California launched his new service.
A major down turn in the photographic industry since the decline of film has seen Hanafins look to diversify to find a
point of differance. How big can it be? Well Hanafins estimate, based on industry data, that there is up to 5 billion
photos in shoe boxes throughout New Zealand taken from just the last 50 years. If 10% of these photos are archived to CD
or DVD it is 50 million dollar plus business. Check out Hanafin's Scanning Services for more information.
Watch the new scanner in action
ENDS