Dresden, 8/30/2006 -- What was foreseeable was announced yesterday to the press: DirectSmile – click-based software manufacturer – and AlphaPicture – click-based solution provider – are bundling their resources. What does this mean for the image personalization market? “For DirecType this is good news. It shows that it does not suffice to offer either the software or the services,” explains Christoph Deutsch, managing director of Deutsch Technologies GmbH. For more than a year the company has been offering its ASP solution called Directype PrintGenerator parallel to the software product DirecType. This gives customers the possibility of using the image personalization technology without any investment risk. This solution will be expanded further in September with the release of the software version 2.0. More than 200 installations worldwide so far speak in favor of DirecType Version1.5 – the most competitively-priced software on the market which works without a click model. “The market for image personalization is facing its first consolidations,” says Christoph Deutsch. “Which is good for DirecType, as the better concept and, above all, a sensible price will clearly hold sway among the customers. There is no scope for high click costs in the area of image personalization, and a cooperation of DirectSmile and AlphaPicture changes nothing here.”