Wal-Mart announces today it will roll out Mymoviemaker today to all 3500+ Wal-Mart stores allowing consumers to create movies from their photos right in the store at a kiosk. Now, Hollywood style effects and themed storyboards are available to any Wal-Mart shopper.
Mymoviemaker features more than 50 transitional themes (though their website only confirms 24) and allows users to add a soundtrack (default for basic, choice of 8 for Gold level). Simply select your photos, select a theme, select a soundtrack and whammo – the software does the rest, even a custom cd label, case cover and thumbnail insert is included.
“Wal-Mart is committed to offering its customers affordable products and cutting-edge technology,” states Joe Lisuzzo, director of Wal-Mart Photo Services and Marketing. “We are pleased to be the first retailer to offer such a powerful, affordable, and easy solution for customers to share life’s events in a truly creative way.”
The software is limited but hey, you are standing in a Wal-Mart.
Starting at just $12.86 for up to 40 personal photos for the basic or $16.86 for the Gold level, you can bank on getting some DVD movies in your mailbox from your Granny forcing you to question her choices in transitions and soundtracks in ways you never thought possible. Thanks Wal-Mart.
Read [mymoviemaker]
The photos kiosks have been tremendously profitable, but I don't know that I understand this move. Video takes a lot longer to do editing, which cuts down on the number of consumers a machine can process. If you are entering special effects, deleting or editing then it takes a long time to do this.
Even at the $16 prices, it's hard for me to see a machine like this doing enough volume to justify a place in Walmart. I'm sure that Walmart has done their testing, but this seems strange to me. I'd be interested in knowing how much capabilities the video software has. If they streamline it for profitability, then don' expect to see many special effects from Grandma.