Nikon to sell direct to consumer in Europe

Following the lead of Sony Style – the direct selling mechanism which allows Sony to retail direct to on-line customers – Nikon is to roll out a brand new on-line dealing platform, with a channel for retailers ordering Nikon gear but also a direct shop for consumers.

The company has signed a deal with hybris, a supplier of multichannel vendor software, to install hybris Multichannel Commerce Suite for Nikon Europe (www.europe-nikon.com).

Nikon made the following statements through a press release issued by hybris (www.hybris.com)

Laurent Christen, Head of Direct Sales at Nikon Europe, explained, “This is our first official pan-European-driven direct sales initiative. It’s a strategic tenet of Nikon’s commercial strategy that enables our loyal dealers to purchase Nikon gear online, provides our assortment of imaging products directly to consumers across the Continent, and supports better our nationally based distributors. This is a truly multichannel scheme – not only does it underpin our online B2C and B2B businesses, it also includes sales over the phone and our internal Nikon store which provides merchandising and PoS materials to our multiple European geographies.  For a multichannel program on this scale, hybris was the ideal technology partner for us to help facilitate this.”

‘Nikon DealerNet’ provides dealers across Europe with their own personal B2B purchasing solution fully equipped with critical product and personal pricing information in real-time. In addition to the eCommerce solution, ‘Nikon DealerNet’ also offers dealers a new streamlined ordering process and enables them to see and manage orders, track shipments and invoices. The ‘Nikon Store’ is a series of online stores for consumers enabling them to purchase Nikon’s high quality imaging and sport optics equipment directly from the Company.  Working in fair alignment with Nikon’s commitment to its business partners, these stores offer a response to consumers seeking direct interaction with the Nikon brand.  It provides an additional choice for consumers to order their favorite gear, accessories, software or merchandise products.

Nikon has also confirmed, today, that the company will be at Focus on Imaging and will for the first time concentrate entirely on professional equipment, showcasing the D4 and D800 and new lenses. Focus has previously been seen as a 50/50 consumer and pro show.

 

 

Canon launches UK/IR pro dealer network

United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland, 02 February, 2009: Canon today announces the launch of the EOS Professional Network (EPN) across the UK & Ireland. The Network will consist of EOS Professional Centres and EOS Professional Stockists. This may sound similar to Sony’s ACE dealer concept – but read the small print! It includes hire stock. Canon is fighting back seriously.
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Calumet London Sony ACE centre

Calumet has announced that its Wardour Street, Soho, London store is now a Sony Alpha Centre of Excellence:

http://ebm.cheetahmail.com/c/tag/tBImAnOBSZ4PaB7SFuqB8eZtgdl/doc.html


Adobe Photoshop Express free web app

London, — March 27, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Photoshop® Express public beta, a free Rich Internet Application (RIA) available to anyone who wants to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects. During the public beta period, Adobe will solicit Photoshop Express user feedback on product features and functionality, which will continue to evolve over time. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe’s best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2 gigabytes of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.

“Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known,” said Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. “Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you’re at home, school or on the road.”

Simple, Fun and Accessible

With Photoshop Express, digital photos can be uploaded and sorted anytime, edited non-destructively to always preserve the original image, and shared from anywhere, on any Web browser. In a few easy clicks, Photoshop Express empowers anyone to make standard edits, such as removing blemishes and red-eye, converting to black and white, cropping and resized, and much more.

No experience is required to add special effects that will impress friends and family. In keeping with its one-click approach, Photoshop Express offers tricks like Pop Colour which selects an object in an image, mutes the background colour of the photo and allows the user to swap the object’s colour so it jumps off the page. Sketch effects help photos look like drawings and the Distort feature allows you to distort facial features or objects within the images for a comical or artistic effect. Even users with limited photo editing knowledge can simply select what looks best from a line-up of sample photos with visual hints showing different variations of the added effect.

Photoshop Express offers a variety of creative sharing options, including uploading and showing off photos and slideshows in your own online “Gallery” hosted by Adobe, or conveniently embedding or linking photos to social networking sites and personal blogs without having to leave the application. Slideshows never looked better with animation that makes photos float and fly across the screen, allowing for viewer interactivity and unique presentation styles.

Adobe Photoshop Family

Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended are at the heart of the Photoshop family, joined by solutions for users at every level who want to bring out the best in their digital images. Photoshop Lightroom™ addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers. Photoshop Elements provides exciting tools and sharing options for photo hobbyists.

Photoshop Express is the latest step Adobe is taking to leverage the advanced technology that underpins its award-winning creative products and deliver it to new online communities. In early 2007, Adobe also announced the availability of Adobe® Premiere® Express, an online video editing and mash-up tool on partner sites such as MTV and Photobucket. Adobe Premiere Express leverages the functionality found in Premiere Elements, a fully-featured desktop video editing program.

Free and Available Now

Adobe Photoshop Express beta is available now for free via any Web browser at http://www.photoshop.com/express. Photoshop Express was created with Flex, Adobe’s free, open source framework for building RIAs. Flex applications provide a consistent, rich user experience across operating systems and all major browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and others. An Internet connection and an up-to-date Flash® Player 9 are all that are required to experience Adobe Photoshop Express. In its early phases, Photoshop Express is available to US residents-only in English. Users may experience slow performance if accessed outside of the US. Future plans include availability in other languages and countries.

Warning to users!

Until corrected by Adobe, who have promised to do so, the terms and conditions include the following: ‘With respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed’.

This outright rights-grab is not, they say, what was intended and the terms will be amended.