Polaroid Focuses Lens on New Tech
Coming soon to a shopping center, drug store, or mall near you - Polaroid. Rebounding off the success of its popular I-Zone instant pocket camera and digital cameras, the financially troubled company is betting that convenience, once a factor in its demise, will jumpstart sales. New digital printing technologies coded-named 'Opal' and 'Onyx', are the basis for a dramatic shift in Polaroid's business strategy.
Opel and Onyx are key parts of Polaroid's strategy to shift from analog to digital technologies. According a press release, Polaroid's Opal technology is, "a two-sheet, thermal print medium that combines the best of traditional thermal transfer and inkjet technologies to generate photographic-quality color prints. Opal's high image quality and stability, combined with fast print speed, make it an optimal technology for dedicated home photo printers or the retail photo finishing environment."
The proliferation of "one-hour" photo centers has dented the business model of Polaroid, which was once revolved around cameras equipped with Polaroid's famous silver halide-based film. Although the product offerings based on silver halide provide consistently strong margins, the company's sales remain sluggish.
Polaroid Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gary T. DiCamillo, claims that certain partners will enjoy unfettered access to Opal and Onyx "to bring digital printing products to market in many different forms." These include kiosks in high traffic areas, photo development labs, and even photo printers for home users.
By placing print centers based on Opal and Onyx in areas where their sales are the strongest, the ailing company hopes to provide easy and affordable centers for digital imaging. Effectively, customers would be able to meet all of their needs at one centralized location situated where they would normally shop.
Dr. Samuel Liggero, Vice President of Polaroid's media research and development, touts the capabilities of this technology by stating, "Opal can be optimized to produce 35mm-quality prints at the rate of 50-to-60 per minute."
Moreover, "Onyx is a single-sheet, thermal print media that features versatility and mobility, combined with very affordable cost. Because of this, Onyx can be deployed in a variety of consumer and commercial applications, such as mobile printer extensions for PDAs and wireless phones; mobile printers for one-time items; and in-dash printers for GPS and mapping systems in automobiles."
Both technologies represent over two years of research and development. Onyx based products will ship by the end of this year, with Opal based products surfacing in 2002.