Further musings on the photobooks and photo gifts market, and the opportunities therein, have been sparked by some news from down under involving HP.

HP has scored something of a coup by displacing Kodak as the digital photo supplier to retailer Kmart.

The new HP solution involves the installation of photo kiosks at the best part of 200 stores, with some of the larger outlets being furnished with as many as 10 units. Kmart will also add a photo gift facility to its website, powered by HP's successful Snapfish site.

The retailer is quoted as saying that it is "moving beyond just printing digital photos", and customers will in the future be able to print items such as photobooks, posters and calendars from a straightforward kiosk interface. Said items will be ready for collection in just an hour at the majority of shops, which is a bit boggling. The question that immediately springs to mind is the production logistics of this work beyond straightforward prints, for example the finishing and binding of page-per-month calendars. Has HP developed some fancy kit that can do all that at the touch of a button?

The new service will be rolled out at selected stores from next month, with the entire project set to be completed by spring 2010. I'm itching to see it in action, and am already fantasising about a fact-finding trip timed to coincide with the Aussie summer. Meanwhile, back in the real world, if HP has anything similarly sophisticated installed within a more reasonable distance of Hammersmith then let's hear about it.