Industry Notes for the week of Oct. 3

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 GaryPageau Financial news, people on the move

Retail News

CNN: Best Buy closed down stores in the pandemic. But people kept shopping

The pandemic has widened the gap between retail’s winners and losers. Best Buy is a rare example of a chain that closed down that has managed to succeed, according to CNN.

Pro Photography

Capturelife and Miller’s put fans in the stands for Mizzou’s Homecoming

Capturelife put an entry on its blog about how the company partnered with Miller’s Professional Imaging to create photo fan cutouts at the University of Missouri’s Homecoming game Oct. 17. Capturelife created a custom mobile URL of its mobile experience with Mizzou branding to enable fans to choose the location and number of cutouts they wish to put in the stands, upload and position their photos within the cutout frame.

Canon shuttering photoPico printing service in Australia

Australia’s Inside Imaging reports Canon Australia is shutting down its photoPico professional photobook and printing service, which is launched in 2013. According to a statement from the site: “From 1 October 2020, Canon Australia is no longer providing the photoPICO service. To ensure minimal impact on consumers with live projects, Pictureworks Group – Canon’s trusted manufacturing partner – will fulfill photoPICO projects through its service, albumworks until 30 June 2021.”

Serendipity Albums offering custom leather and velvet albums to pro photographers

Houston-based Serendipity Albums is offering photographers custom leather and velvet albums. The new leather albums can be made of vintage, luxury, or full-grain Italian leather and feature a high-performance protective coating to ensure the album maintains its look over time, the company says.

Drone-on-Demand service launches

More and more “products” are becoming “services.” Companies are now offering camera hardware as a service, through renting. Now a startup named Aquiline Drones will soon be offering a “drone-on-demand” mobile app and service.

Events

National School Photography Advocacy Day

The School Photographers Association of America has declared Monday, Nov. 15, as its fall advocacy day in all 50 states. Executive director David Crandall says the organization will supply members with a letter and information to share with state and local legislators about the vital role school photography plays in education. For more information about the association, click here.

Visual 1st conference program update

The Making Imaging Machine Learning Super Smart panel at Visual 1st will provide insight into what’s feasible in three distinctly different application areas: photo enhancement, video creation, and marketing.

Viesus provides fast on-the-fly image correction solutions for large numbers of photos, while optimizing the enhancements based on its AI image content analysis.

CreativeX applies image recognition analytics to help marketers understand which visual properties resonate with consumers and, more importantly, why.

Synthesia provides sophisticated solutions for creating AI videos by simply typing in text. This way, enterprises and SMBs can generate engaging video content at scale without the need for actors, film crews and studios.

Registration now open for APTech’s LeadingPRINT Summit on Oct. 13

The Association for PRINT Technologies (APTech) announces registration is open for the LeadingPRINT Fall 2020 Summit, titled, “The Path Forward: Let’s Get on with Business.” The full-scale digital event will be Oct.13, 2020.

EFI, HP, Kodak join the exodus from Drupa 2021

Drupa, the every-five-years print-industry showcase in Dusseldorf, suffered some high-profile bad news last week as prominent exhibitors EFI, HP, Fujifilm and Kodak have all announced they will not attend the April 20-28, 2021, event. Previously announced absences came from Heidelberg, Xerox, Komori, Screen, Bobst, and Manroland.

App Updates

Forever adds seamless layflat photo books

Family history and memory site Forever.com announced it has launched seamless layflat photobooks as part of its thrust into printed products. CEO Glen Meakem told the Dead Pixel Society, in a May 30 podcast episode, how the printing business is booming.

Financial News

PlanetArt sees fiscal 2020 revenues climb 78%

Claranova, the parent company of PlanetArt, closed fiscal 2020 with record growth. The group cleared the €400 million revenue bar (€409 million), progressing 56%, of which organic growth of 20%, the company said. PlanetArt reported annual revenue of €314 million, up 78%. This growth was driven by a continued geographic roll-out in Europe, the ramp-up of new mobile offerings.

Sky News: U.K. photo card company MoonPig is looking to go public

Sky News reports U.K. photo card company MoonPig is in the early stages of a public offering. MoonPig has been owned since 2016 by private equity company Exponent Group. Exponent also owns PhotoBox.

Amazon invests in Kornit for direct-garment printing

Print21 reports Amazon is inking a contract for $400 million with digital direct-to-garment print systems developer Kornit Digital. The five-year deal is for $250 million worth of existing Kornit printers and ink and a further $150 million for “future products”.

Interesting items from around the web

Facebook spotlights PastBook use of sign-on feature

The Facebook Developers Page spotlighted Amsterdam-base photobook company PastBook for the using Facebook’s single sign-on service. PastBook allows customers to turn their Facebook photos into personalized photo books using AI. The company said, because PastBook followed Facebook’s recommended practices, >90% of total PastBook customers connected via Facebook Login, 3X increase in orders through Facebook, and 10x faster book creation for users logging in with Facebook.

Henry’s Foundation launches mental health campaign in Canada

Henry’s Foundation is helping to put the mental health of all Canadians into focus by raising awareness and funds for national partners Kids Help Phone and Jack.org.

CNN: Best Buy closed down stores in the pandemic. But people kept shopping

The pandemic has widened the gap between retail’s winners and losers. Best Buy is a rare example of a chain that closed down that has managed to succeed, according to CNN.

People on the Move

Christa Quarles joins Corel as CEO

Corel Corp. announced Christa Quarles was appointed Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

Canon adds five photographers to Explorers of Light Program

Canon U.S.A. Inc. added five photographers to its Explorers of Light program. Lara Jade, Lynsey Weatherspoon, Kahran & Regis Bethencourt (CreativeSoul), and Atiba Jefferson will join 33 other photographers in the program.