Archive for August, 2007
We’re pleased to introduce MarketIntellnow, a leading market research and strategic consulting firm that is currently doing a report/survey on WiFi-Enabled Gizmos (WEGs). Over the next month, the team from MarketIntellnow will provide insight into their study results. We encourage you to visit their site and if so motivated to purchase their report.Â
Editor, WirelessPictureFrame.com
There are five key drivers for WiFi-Enabled Gizmos (WEGs):
- Wi-Fi penetration, currently at about 30% of U.S. households per our polling, is growing rapidly. A few WEGs– Digital Photo Frames and Webcams– already are riding the Wi-Fi wave. But these are single-purpose devices. We see a rise in multi-function devices, because…
- … there are a number of powerhouse widget-platform players like FrameMedia and AmnestyWidgets. They’re already driving content to PCs and laptops ’round the world. And Slide is in the #1 spot with a gaudy 177 million monthly worldwide uniques. So not only is there now plenty of “conduit” (wireless internet) in 30 million U.S. households and growing, but there’s also an easy way to self-provision content containers and the actual content therein.
- As to content, personalization (witness iTunes) is all the rage; everyone wants their “Radio Me,” as we like to call it. It’s easy to download audio and video content for one’s unique tastes (however esoteric). WEGs are new ways to distribute one’s personal content-set without having to carry around one’s iPod:
Your Content Where You Want It When You Want It.
- Appliance Intimacy: You’ve seen this. It’s the guy at the airport gazing deeply into the screen on his laptop, watching a video. It used to be that listening to music/watching a show was a group endeavor– it would happen in the “Family Room.” Increasingly, we’re cocooning with our devices, listening or watching solo, inches away. What this means for WEGs is everyone will want their very own (one per bedroom?), in part because your WEG plays your own unique content. As personal as a toothbrush.
- The United States is the richest country in the world, and almost without regard (within the relative range) to what consumer electronics SKU is offered, it moves at the magical price point of … $200. And of course, there is substantial elasticity south of $200.Consider Digital Photo Frames– some 5 million will sell in the USA this year. All they do is play photos, and to date it’s mostly been one’s own photos, not third-party content. Digital Photo Frames have been more a story of trial than adoption (ask a friend if he still uses the one he bought), but they support this thesis. These gadgets found momentum at the $200 price point, and as they hurtled toward $100, market demand surged.The ol’ Digital Photo Frame (single-function WEG) will give way to multi-function devices like this, beginning in earnest later this year, for the holidays:The questions we answer with our WEG survey include the following:
- What WEG functionality and content is desired most, by demographic?
- How will users want to manage their WEGs, and what’s the right form factor?
- What are folks willing to pay?
- Where will they put their WEGs? How many per household?
- What are the objections to WEGs, and can they be overcome?
- Where will folks want to buy their WEGs? And from what class of vendors?
Our ANWO survey is ongoing now, and the results with our accompanying analysis will be available 9/4/2007, via our eStore.
Questions? We’re marketintellnow on all the IM services.
Listen up, Bluetooth people. Parrot has a new digital photo frame with Bluetooth wireless technology. Can you use the new Parrot DF7220 with your iPhone? Yes, you can!
The 7-inch diagonal display shuts off automatically at night, and there are several frame options you can choose; there’s a frame style for any decor and for any taste.
Just select the Parrot DF7220 in your Bluetooth device list (phone, digital camera, or computer) Then select the picture you want to display and send it to the frame via Bluetooth. You don’t have to worry about or deal with resizing; the frame will do that for you, instantly. The 3-button user interface is easy to use.
If you don’t want or need to use the wireless Bluetooth functions at the moment, you can also transfer pictures to this frame with the USB port, flash drive, or memory card slot; there’s room for approximately 300 pictures on the frame itself.
By the way, if you’re going to transfer pictures with a flash drive, why not get that new one from SanDisk? It’s 8 GB!
This new Parrot DF7220 with wireless Bluetooth capabilities will be available worldwide in stores by October 7, and will cost approximately $199.00.
August 28, 2007 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
CEIVA® Announces Customer Experience Enhancements
CEIVA Expands Digital Photo Frame Service, Features and Functionality for 2007 Holiday Season
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CEIVA Logic, Inc. today unveiled its new customer-focused offerings and product advancements designed to enhance user experience with the patented CEIVA Digital Photo Frameâ„¢. Just in time for the 2007 holiday season, the new features and functionality include expansion of its world-class customer care team and free CEIVA software updates that are automatically sent directly to users’ frames.
As part of the new upgrades, CEIVA will be introducing a new easier to use Digital Photo Frame menu that features intuitive thumbnail browsing and streamlined menus making on screen navigation a breeze. Menus on the frames will also now be bi-lingual in English and Spanish. To expand users’ connectivity options, CEIVA has released its new EZ wireless connection update which allows them to effortlessly set up their CEIVA frames to connect to their wireless home network by employing a look-up browsing feature. The new software updates are included with all new frame purchases this holiday season as well as sent automatically to existing Digital Photo Frames through CEIVA’s optional PicturePlan® service.
“CEIVA supports a community of people who have discovered that sharing memories and experiences with family and friends truly enhances their lives. Our goal is to provide this community with the best way to enjoy and share their digital photos. We pride ourselves on going the extra mile to further develop useful features while at the same time offering unparalleled customer service,†said Dean Schiller, CEO of CEIVA Logic. “We place a tremendous value on fulfilling our customers’ needs and as a result, go far beyond other photo frame offerings. With CEIVA’s emphasis on connectivity and our dedicated focus on customer service, we are able to better understand our customers and provide them with a superior experience.â€
CEIVA will be extending weekday customer service hours and adding Saturday hours in order to accommodate increased holiday support needs. CEIVA customer care representatives are available by phone and on-line to handle basic questions, along with any inquiries related to technical aspects of the frames and PicturePlan®.
Check out this new 7-inch digital photo frame from JOBO! Actually, there are two new 7-inch digital photo frames from JOBO: the PDJ701, with 1 GB of storage space ($179.00), and the PDJ700, with 128 MB of internal memory ($159.00).
According to JOBO CEO Johannes Bockemuehl-Simon, “These affordable new JOBO Photo Displays were created specifically to help consumers keep their memories alive and visible. With the popularity of digital photography and the ability of consumers to take more pictures than they ever did before, products like our Photo Displays are the perfect solution to proudly showcase digital images that until now were just being stored on home computers never to be seen again.”
Both JOBO frames have color LCD screens with 384,000 pixel monitor resolution. The slideshow option gives the customer even more opportunity see see more pictures. The JOBO frames include an alarm clock, calendar, and timer.
The JOBO PDJ701 holds more than 10,000 pictures, and the JOBO PDJ700 can store approximately 1,000 pictures. Both frames support JPEG and BMP formats.
Whether you have a LOT of pictures stored in your hard drive and memory card, or just a few, there is a JOBO digital photo frame that is perfect for you.
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