Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Future Shop Closing Online Photo Service, Shifting Customers to Kodak Gallery
Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune News" @ 04:03 PM
"Dear Valued Future Photo Customer, On May 31, 2008, the Future Photo site will be closing – but that doesn’t mean your photos will be lost! We’ve partnered with KODAK Gallery, the recognized leader in online imaging. They’ve just launched Kodakgallery.ca for the Canadian market, and we’ve made it easy for you to transfer your photos. You will continue to receive a full range of high quality photo products with KODAK Gallery and have the convenience of FREE in store pick-up at all Future Shop stores."
Future Shop is one of Canada's largest electronics chains, and when they got bought out by Best Buy a couple of years ago, the two of them became an even bigger juggernaut. Like almost every other electronics store, Future Shop had its own online photo store. And like many of them, it wasn't particularly good. All markets start out broad with many players, then converge into a handful of market leaders, so it's not terribly surprising to see Future Shop giving up and handing the reigns over to Kodak Gallery (which in reality is Ofoto, a photo company that Kodak purchased).
Future Photo customers have a little over one month to migrate their photos over to Kodak Gallery, and if they do so, they'll get 100 free prints. But, bizarrely, Future Shop's migration process assumes that the email address you used to register with their service will be identical to the one you used if you already have Kodak Gallery account. Mine isn't, so I can't migrate my photos without creating a brand new Kodak Gallery account - which is idiotic. Future Shop always manages to leave me unimpressed, and this process was no different.
Future Shop is one of Canada's largest electronics chains, and when they got bought out by Best Buy a couple of years ago, the two of them became an even bigger juggernaut. Like almost every other electronics store, Future Shop had its own online photo store. And like many of them, it wasn't particularly good. All markets start out broad with many players, then converge into a handful of market leaders, so it's not terribly surprising to see Future Shop giving up and handing the reigns over to Kodak Gallery (which in reality is Ofoto, a photo company that Kodak purchased).
Future Photo customers have a little over one month to migrate their photos over to Kodak Gallery, and if they do so, they'll get 100 free prints. But, bizarrely, Future Shop's migration process assumes that the email address you used to register with their service will be identical to the one you used if you already have Kodak Gallery account. Mine isn't, so I can't migrate my photos without creating a brand new Kodak Gallery account - which is idiotic. Future Shop always manages to leave me unimpressed, and this process was no different.
