That sound you heard last week was the collective sigh of executives in the kiosk industry as they said farewell to a tumultuous 2009. Though self-service fared far better than some other industries, everyone is looking forward to getting back to business in the new year. Here are five people who have emerged as impact-makers in the industry and what we expect to see from them in 2010.
1. Alex Camara, VP of entertainment solutions, NCR Corp.
2009 was arguably the year of the redbox. But if Alex Camara and NCR Corp. have their way, 2010 will belong to the company's Blockbuster Express line of DVD-rental kiosks and its digital-download kiosk solution, developed with MOD Systems.
While redbox' nationwide presence still outnumbers NCR's Blockbuster Express footprint by the thousands, NCR may have a leg up in other ways. Despite limited adoption and technical kinks still to be worked out, the company has gotten a head-start on emerging technology with its digital-download kiosk pilot, an area where redbox remains noticeably quiet. Also, NCR has managed to stay on the good side of the Hollywood studios, allowing the company to continue stocking its kiosks with a variety of new release titles while redbox struggles to do so through a costly work-around strategy.
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2. Perse Faily, CEO, EMN8
Led by one of the few female executives in the self-service industry, San Diego-based EMN8 made headlines in September 2009 when it announced a deal with IBM. The agreement puts the tech giant's manufacturing, sales and support capabilities behind EMN8's OrderM8 kiosk, as well as future technologies the companies will develop together.
EMN8 focuses on the quick-serve restaurant segment and already has relationships with several chains, but with the weight of IBM behind its efforts, 2010 may be a big year for the company and a pivotal time for the QSR segment's adoption of self-service in general.
"We expect the pace to pick up," Faily said after the deal was announced in September. I think you'll see a lot of pilots this coming year, you'll see some expansions."
3. Bart Foster, founder and CEO, SoloHealth
It's not been long since SoloHealth's EyeSite kiosk was the toast of the kiosk industry. The award-winning self-service concept offers consumers free vision tests and eye-care provider information in retail environments, and its deployments have grown steadily over the past year. Many trend-watchers believe 2010 will see the growth of kiosk deployments in the healthcare vertical, so it will be interesting to see how, or if, Foster and SoloHealth can parlay their successes into additional applications.
4. George McQuain, CEO, Global Axcess Corp.
An independent ATM provider with more than 4,500 machines in 44 states, Global Axcess Corp. (GAXC) in July announced it would branch out into the self-service market with a line of DVD-rental kiosks.
McQuain, who has largely been responsible for bringing the once-struggling Global Axcess back to profitability, says the ISO has a unique opportunity to compete against the major DVD-rental brands.
"We believe there is a largely unmet addressable market for DVD kiosks that will not only allow us to penetrate the market but also allow us to displace incumbents," McQuain said in December. "Our goal is to leverage our ability to deploy, manage, maintain and process transactions from a wider range of self-service kiosks beyond the traditional ATM. We believe our aggressive move into the DVD kiosk market has significant upside revenue growth opportunities for us."
So far, so good. GAXC began its DVD-rental efforts with a 24-location pilot and last month announced it would expand the program. The company plans to roll out five to 10 new kiosks per month in the first half of 2010, ramping up to 15 to 20 per month in the latter half of the year.
5. Mitch Lowe, president, redbox
The coming months are likely to bring more legal drama for redbox and its Hollywood foes – namely Universal Home Video, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. – and the kiosk industry, among others, will continue to watch with interest. Since the controversy began in late 2008, Lowe hasn't shied away from defending his company's concept and what he says is the consumer's right to affordable and convenient new-release DVDs, and redbox has defied the studios by stocking its kiosks with new releases purchased at retail on the day of release.
"Redbox remains committed to providing our customers the new release DVDs they want, where they want and at the low price they want," Lowe said in August when redbox filed suit against Warner Bros. "Standing behind our commitment, redbox will continue to offer our consumers access to all major new releases."
Redbox even has started a Web site trumpeting its consumer-centric efforts at SaveLowCostDVDs.com. Watching what other publicity-garnering tricks Lowe and redbox have up their sleeve this year will be entertaining at least, and at most, the outcome of the battle could represent a paradigm change for one of self-service's most popular and successful incarnations.
