Samsung and Kodak Announce a Tactical New Alliance in Consumer Inkjet Printing

Two big names Kodak and Samsung Electronics have decided to form a strategic alliance to sell consumer inkjet printers in Europe.This means Samsung will sell Samsung all-in-one inkjet printers using Kodak’s printer and proprietary inkjet technology.

Mark Kuz, Vice President, Consumer Group Kodak, was upbeat about the whole deal. It is a win-win situation he says. As per him, Samsung will benefit from Kodak’s record of accomplishment and experience in inkjet technology and will help Kodak turnaround in its business.

The printers have recently been launched in Germany.

Kodak, the American multinational imaging and photographic equipment company, was having difficult times since the last couple of years. The company received a major setback in December 2010 when Standard & Poor’s removed the company from its S&P 500 index.

In January this year Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In February Kodak planned restructuring by announcing that it will exit digital imaging business and phase out manufacturing of its digital cameras.

The company’s focus is now on home photo printers, speed commercial inkjet presses, and workflow software. It is desperately attempting a turnaround by realigning its financial structure by separating commercial printing and film business from dwindling consumer divisions business.

This present strategic alliance is a bold step in this direction.

In contrast, Samsung Group, South Korea’s biggest conglomerate, has ambitious plans for 2012. It is planning a record investment of $41.4 billion.

The company is going full guns by launching new printers with the present alliance with Kodak and already has made a preliminary introduction in Germany.

Early this year Samsung launched a series of printers that can print documents from smartphones and a whole lot of mobile sets using WI-Fi direct.

Samsung is also in the forefront in promoting the ecosystem with its new set of printers that have some splendid features. The company’s wireless printers ML-2160 and SCX – 3400 feature Wi-Fi direct radically enhance ease of use to print documents wirelessly.

In spite of the present recessionary trends, the business for inkjet printers is expected to be positive. As per a forecast, all-in-one inkjet market shipment is expected to grow to more than 20 million by 2015.

Inkjet printers are still the preferred primary printing devices in homes and small office environments. Users prefer these over laser printers because of their lower cost, better text quality, excellent photo print attributes, and lower cost per page.

We expect this new alliance between Samsung and Kodak to do well.