ITRO News AXcess News: Trends in Digital Photography
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Now you can take pictures with your mobile phone, Kodak revolutionized
recyclable cameras, digital cameras are all the craze and printer
manufacturers are even getting in on it -- there's a digital revolution
under way!
Kodak, which in 2000 dominated consumer photography, is credited with
pioneering the disposable, or recyclable camera, having since outsourced
what at one point was thought to be the saving grace of the company in
an ever-widening field of competitors in digital cameras who are
elbowing in on the photo king's market.
Beginning in 2003 more companies have entered the U.S. market. These
include Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo!, Sony, Motorola, Nokia, Cannon, Google,
Shutterfly and others. Many are well capitalized and thus, Kodak is
suffering financially because of it.
Image capture technology now has two methods: Negative film with image
capture by conventional camera, and digital image capture on a computer
chip with a digital camera. A third method, based on conventional 35 mm
film is the returnable camera. Sales of conventional 35 mm film have
declined sharply in the last two years, but the use of returnable
cameras is reported to be growing at a rate of about 6 percent per year.
A big question has been, what's happened to the business of printing
photographs? Is traditional print dead? Not hardly, says Reno,
Nev.-based Itronics, Inc. (OTCBB: ITRO), which processes photochemicals,
removing the heavy metals, like silver, and turns the leftover liquids
into environmentally friendly fertilizers that it markets under the
GOLD'n GRO label.
Image print technology now has two methods: Standard silver halide
photographic prints, and ink jet prints. Silver halide prints are less
costly to produce compared to ink jet prints, but the ink jet printer
companies are making a major push to gain market share using discount
pricing. Industry reports indicate that the use of silver halide print
paper increased by 7 percent in the first part of 2006 indicating that
silver halide prints are still the consumer favorite. And it's waste
liquids from silver halide printing that's Itronics' bread and butter.
Internet photo service Shutterfly Inc., whose $75 million IPO is
expected shortly, estimates the U.S. market for digital photo prints
to grow from $10 billion in 2005 to $30 billion in 2009. In addition,
industry sources predict that in the United States photos ordered over
the Internet for mail delivery will grow from approximately $424 million
in 2005 to approximately $1.9 billion in 2009.
Shutterfly uses conventional silver halide technology to make
photographic prints from digital images as well as from 35 mm film. Up
until 2005, it supplied its waste photochemicals to Itronics, with the
two companies sharing in the profits from extracting pure silver bars
from the waste chemicals. But higher transportation costs forced the two
to part ways last year. Shutterfly, which is in California, now uses
local companies to process the waste liquids -- at least until
environmental water quality rules become more stringent there.
While Shutterfly's market booms, so does Itronics. Itronics reported
silver sales rose 200 percent in the first two months of the third
quarter and that sales of its GOLD'n GRO liquid fertilizers rose 89
percent over the same period last year. Itronics released the interim
period results on Sept. 7, the same day Shutterfly's IPO plans were set.
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