Hi,
I was thinking about starting a self-service printing project but found present services below during my research.
I thought there was no need to invent the wheel again. Maybe someone has done it already.
So I decided to reach out to you and other similar project owners. I want to learn if your solution matches my expectations.
If your product matches my requirements I could become a partner or distributor of your product which
will save my time & let you grow your business please contact me if interested.
Let me describe the current situation about printing habits in my country.
I will also mention needs & problems which drove me to think for a better solution.
I have 2 kids going to school. They need to print some homework papers sometimes, not always. We have 2 computers at home but I decided not to buy a printer for these reasons
- Printers are not cheap, my country has major economic problems. More than 40% of all workers earn minimum wage which is around $300-$400 The most selling printer price is around $175
- Printers may face ink problems when they are not used for a long time (this was the case when I was a kid, not sure about recent printers)
- I’m allowed to use the business printer in my office for personal use, sometimes I use it for my kids’ prints.
Rich families have printers at home but I’m not sure about the percentage. Some research in this area is a must.
For non-rich families in Turkey there are local stationery shops around schools with printers. Very very few stationery chains exist (like Ryman in the UK)
Students use these shops to print and pay cash per A4 page. Price range is huge. There is no regular price.
Most of these shops have a PC and let customers use it.
- Some customers bring documents with USB flash drives to print (mostly infected)
- Some customers sign in to their personal accounts (e-mails, whatsapp web etc) (risky on this shared computer)
- Some customers send documents to the shop owner’s email address
Some other disadvantages are:
- Shops are mostly open only between day hours 8am – 8pm
- Mostly closed on sundays
- Shop are mostly crowded. 8 million students cause waiting lines.
It has been a long time since I entered a bank branch. Nearby ATMs fulfill my needs.
An APM (Automated Printing Machine) would be very helpful. Send the documents online, pay online, and go to the nearest APM to take your prints.
These APM’s could be placed outside like ATMs.
Also stationary shops could become a collect point and their printer could become an APM.
They already have a printer and internet. I could design a tiny smart device to connect those printers to a cloud controlled network.
What do you think ?
Has APM been invented ?
Is there a successful global APM network project on the market ?
I will be happy to listen to your ideas & experience.
Edit-1: Printt in UK seems not very successful. They failed to find hosts except a few Ryman stores. Better profit sharing ratio might help ?
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