Kodak changes industry business model

Kodak is introducing new all-in-one printers and inks on the consumer market with a challenging prospects for consumers. Not only are the inks a lot cheaper than the competition, the printed paper will show vibrant colours for a 100 years (compared to 15 today). The most interesting point of the marketing strategy is the price positioning of the consumables. Ink prices can be higher than expensive perfumes, not in the case of Kodak. Instead of discounting on the hardware and making huge profits on the supplies, as companies as HP, Canon and in other industries Gillette do, Kodak says they want to address the key consumers' dissatisfaction: the high cost of inks. It will be fascinating to watch how their strategy will work out.

Design adds value

This was a full page of The New York Times some days ago, it demonstrates in a strong way the added value of design. The subject is alarming - the death toll in Iraq in one month. The design dramatises the figures in such a way that you can almost "feel" the symbols representing the killed soldiers and citizens. The page tells you so much more than a simple table with figures can. It painfully precise amplifies the magnitude of the problem.

Walk the talk

A great idea from Publicis Graffiti in Argentina.

Not paper-less, but Zink

Zero Ink (Zink) technology was presented last week at a technology show in the USA allowing to print full colour images on paper without using ink. The images appear on a sheet of paper after the paper is heated in a special printer. The innovation is in the paper, dye crystals are embedded in the paper and activated when heated. The crystals then colourise, producing high quality images. The shape of the printers will change drastically as no ink cartridges are required with this technology. As the size can be really small applications in mobile phones are foreseen for the end of this year.