DEERFIELD, Ill., July 10, 2012 - Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) extended its innovation in mobile technology today with the introduction of a developer portal that allows third-party software developers to integrate the Walgreens QuickPrints software development kit (SDK), enabling photo printing directly from iPhone and Android mobile devices.
“Our new QuickPrints SDK enables third-party software developers to tap Walgreens Web services, building a broad selection of apps that deliver our convenient store capabilities to more customers,” said Abhi Dhar, Walgreens e-commerce chief technical officer.
The launch of the QuickPrints SDK marks the first time that Walgreens has provided an open interface for third-party application developers to integrate Walgreens in-store services. With this program, Walgreens convenient Web services for QuickPrints can now be built into a wide range of mobile apps that deliver these services to a large market of mobile users.
QuickPrints, currently available in the Walgreens iPhone and Android applications, allows mobile users to print photos directly from their phone to any of the 7,907 Walgreens stores nationwide in about an hour. Starting today, Walgreens has released the QuickPrints SDK for iPhone and Android devices, allowing third party developers to integrate the service within their existing mobile application and share revenue from photo orders sent to be printed at Walgreens.
"With almost 30 percent of photos today taken on smartphones and the popularity of photo applications growing, the opportunity for consumers to benefit from the convenience of printing their memories to Walgreens through a variety of photo apps is tremendous,” said Jasbir Patel, senior director of Walgreens Photo.
The QuickPrints SDK has already been adopted by GroupShot, Kicksend, Pic Stitch, Pinweel, and StillShot, with more partners expected to join the program in the coming weeks. Walgreens is also partnering with Aviary, a digital photo-editing platform currently used by more than 1,200 app developers and 8 million consumers, to leverage its growing group of photo application partners. Detailed information for the QuickPrints SDK program, as well as other future offerings, can be found on the Walgreens Developer Portal at developer.walgreens.com.
To encourage mobile developers to include new features using the QuickPrints SDK within their application, Walgreens will host its first Mobile Photo Hack Day event on Saturday, Aug. 11, at its downtown Chicago e-commerce office at 36 S. Wabash Ave. The event will provide developers the opportunity to meet, collaborate and showcase their creative implementations of the QuickPrints SDK in their applications.
Developer demos will be reviewed by a panel of top industry professionals with a total of $5,000 in cash prizes available to the top developer integrations. For more information or to register for the event, interested developers can go to developer.walgreens.com/page/hackday.
Walgreens is working with Apigee, a technology company providing the underlying platform for Walgreens Developer Portal and application programming interface (API).
"Today's social media giants have demonstrated the power of APIs for creating a massive choice of apps around a business, and now APIs are becoming imperative for any business to thrive in the digital economy," said Chet Kapoor, Apigee CEO. "Walgreens is proving to be a leading technology innovator, aggressively embracing the mobile market to enhance the pharmacy experience for customers."
About Walgreens
As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to become America’s first choice for health and daily living. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 7,907 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.