Kodak and Nokia soon to make phone camera printing a snap

Consumers taking pictures with their Nokia 7650, 6600 and 3650 imaging phones will be able to print their pictures at Kodak's new Picture Maker print kiosks. Using Bluetooth technology, consumers will be able to send pictures taken on their phones to a Kodak Picture Maker kiosk, where they can then instantly view, edit and print their images and save them on CD.

The Kodak Picture Maker kiosks already introduced in the Middle East soon will be offering this service to mobile phone users. These self-serve units use Kodak quality paper and offer creative printing options through a wide range of templates with specialized themes. The units also enable users to turn their favourite images into postcards or personalized calendars.

"This cooperation brings together the world's best photography company and the world's best mobile communications company to offer consumers another exciting application in the growing field of mobile imaging. This agreement is part of Kodak's broad-based strategy to provide consumers as many options to print as possible - from home to retail to online," said Amr Banaja, marketing manager for Kodak in the Middle East.

He added: "With the increasing popularity of phone cameras, we also are considering introducing into the region our Picture Centre Online service, which now is available in the United States and is being tested in Europe. With this service, photo enthusiasts can store and edit their digital pictures on an online photo album."

Across the Middle East, Kodak has a network of more than 350 stores powered by Kodak Express Digital Technology offering an array of digital services such as saving pictures on CDs, restoring old images digitally and creating calendars, postcards, greeting cards and more using digital images or images from film negatives or slides. These stores also offer quality film, cameras and photographic accessories.