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New Opportunities in Ink Jet
Those of you focusing on expanding into or starting up in the ink jet market have picked an exciting time to do so. The new class of ink jet printers that has hit the stores recently has driven home the new capabilities of these printers. With photo quality output now a reality, a whole new range of opportunities awaits those who focus upon it. New improved printers with photo optimized cartridges and special papers have brought this type of output to professional quality standards. New products on the market such as $199.00 digital cameras and disk drive size photo scanners for personal computers complement color ink jet printers perfectly.
Last week I received a promotion in the mail from a company in Seattle that was quite interesting. Their business was photo film processing, and two rolls of free 35mm film accompanied the solicitation. For roughly the same price as one would pay for a roll of standard prints, this company would include a disk with the photo files on it as well. A very smart move, and one that probably made the promotion work. This is a snapshot of how all film processors will someday soon offer their services. The impact of millions of people now able to pop a disk into their PC and print out color snapshots is a foregone conclusion. Color ink jet output will begin surging nationwide, and the potential users in this group are diverse. In addition to the end users and SOHO market, photographers, advertising agencies, service bureaus, commercial artists, stock photo agencies and banner companies are among the many who will be incorporating more ink jet output into their businesses. The challenge is how to capture this market.