di support’s PrintCube wins another award
The German software and imaging systems specialist, di support has received another award for its PrintCube. The company won the first prize in this year’s German Innovation Award in the “Excellence in Business to Business – Retail & Trade Solutions” category. The German Innovation Award is organized by the German Design Council and recognizes products and solutions from all sectors that differ from previous solutions in terms of user-friendliness and functional added value.
The annual award is based on the motto “Making innovations visible”. Only companies that have been nominated in advance by the expert panels and scouts of the German Design Council are eligible submit their products. Then the products are evaluated according to criteria such as innovation, user benefits, cost-effectiveness, marketability as well as technical quality and function. The decision is made by a jury of independent experts from industry, science, institutions and finance.
Since its introduction a couple of sears ago, di support has received several awards for its PrintCube. For example, the cloud-based solution for the on-site production of photos and picture products in stores won the coveted Red Dot Award in 2018. This year, the PrintCube received the German Design Award 2020 in the product category “Computer and Communication”.
The PrintCube is primarily intended to make smartphone photographers hungry for physical photos and picture products. In the course of the development of smartphones to the most popular consumer camera, di support has intensively dealt with the development of new instant print systems for retail. The team headed by CEO Ralph Naruhn wants to make printing photos as easy as sharing pictures directly from a mobile device in digital networks and social media.
The PrintCube enables consumers to design picture products on their smartphone practically anywhere in the world and then have them printed instantly in the store of their choice. For this purpose, the orders are uploaded to di support’s cloud platform and sent from there to the Print Cube at the selected retail location. The elegant, compact device has no buttons and therefore acts like a smartphone among the print stations.
“We were extremely pleased with this award,” commented di support managing director Ralph Naruhn. “Di support stands for innovation and ingenuity. Even in the current very special time of the corona pandemic, it can be seen how a well-thought-out product like the PrintCube, which deals with the current technical conditions, generates real additional advantages for its users. With the PrintCube, customers no longer have to enter their print orders on publicly accessible touch displays, but can do this on their own smartphone and start the print job withour any physical contact. Real innovations always generate additional added value over the course of their life cycle. “