Archive for Tips & Tricks

In-Stat Says Digital Photo Frame Market Will Get Connected

A recent post on NewsBlaze.com predicts – and rightly so, in my opinion – that prices for wireless digital photo frames will continue to go down, and that people are falling in love with their wireless frames and learning to use them for many different purposes!

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – (BUSINESS WIRE) – The market for digital photo frames has taken-off, particularly since prices dropped to affordable levels in the first half of 2009, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). However, due to difficult economic conditions and the trend to purchase digital photo frames as gifts pre-loaded with pictures, most units shipped still lack advanced features such as wireless connectivity to the Internet. Nevertheless, wireless-enabled photo frames are a key growth driver as they will grow at twice the rate of overall digital photo frames in 2010.

“Prices for connected frames will continue to decline, and as manufacturers educate consumers about these devices; the mass market will become more comfortable using the Internet services connected frames support,” says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. “Applications such as sharing and downloading pictures over the Internet, as well as streaming Internet radio and video from online sites like YouTube, are expected to be primary drivers.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Worldwide unit shipments of all digital photo frames are expected to reach 50 million by 2013.
• Nearly 60% of US respondents to In-Stat’s consumer survey identified integrated wireless connectivity as a desired feature on their next digital photo frame purchase.
• The total silicon opportunity for digital photo frame suppliers will exceed $550 million by 2013. Microcontrollers comprise the largest opportunity in non-wireless enabled devices.
• The bill of materials for a wireless 8-inch digital photo frame will fall below US$36 by 2013; the LCD, the wireless module and the enclosure are the dominant cost items.

The research, “Wi-Fi Represents Strongest Opportunity in Global Connected Digital Photo Frame Market” (#IN0904506ID), covers the worldwide market for wireless digital photo frames. It includes:

• Forecasts of digital photo frame unit sales and revenue (connected and non-connected) by functionality segment through 2013.
• Forecasts of average selling prices and bill of materials for digital photo frames through 2013.
• Total available market forecast for components and silicon through 2013.
• Analysis of a US consumer survey regarding digital frames.
• Profiles of digital photo frame vendors and silicon vendors including: HP, Kodak, Pandigital, Philips, Samsung, Sony, RMI Corporation, Marvell Technology Group, and Samsung Electronics.

About In-Stat

In-Stat’s market intelligence combines technical, market and end-user research and database models to analyze the Mobile Internet and Digital Entertainment ecosystems. Our insights are derived from a deep understanding of technology impacts, nearly 30 years of history in research and consulting, and direct relationships with leading players in each of our core markets. In-Stat provides its research through reports, annual subscriptions, consulting and advisory services to inform critical decisions.

In-Stat
Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst
781-879-3282
stephanie.ethier@reedbusiness.com
or
Elaine Potter, Marketing Coordinator
480-483-4441
epotter@reedbusiness.com

Eye-Fi: Put A Little Magic On Your Wall

I’ve posted here before about the Eye-Fi cards, and how easy and magical they are.  I haven’t changed my mind; in fact, I grow more and more crazy about Eye-Fi with each passing day!

Eye-Fi even has its own Flickr account, and if you go there you can see, among other things, tons and tons of awesome BlogHer pictures!  Imagine – your Eye-Fi card will send your pictures back to your computer the very instant you snap them!  It’s REAL-TIME wireless pictures, folks.

If you’re still not comprehending the coolness of an Eye-fi card in your digital camera, let me put it this way:  when I was at BlogHer in Chicago last weekend, taking pictures right and left, my husband,  who had been “left behind” in southern Indiana, was watching these pictures appear as if by magic, on our wireless digital picture frame, seconds after I took them.  My brother, in Idaho, was keeping up with me, too; these same pictures were appearing, real-time, on HIS wireless picture frame, a couple of thousand miles away!  Simultaneously, my mother was keeping track of me as she sat in her Lazy-Boy recliner and watched in wonder as my pictures started apearing on her wireless Digital Spectrum MF 8104.

In fact, we all have a Digital Spectrum MF 8104 wireless digital picture frame.  It’s fantastic.

We all have FrameChannel accounts, too – my whole family.  The combination of FrameChannel and Eye-Fi is so fantastic, it’s almost Harry-Potterish!  Your Eye-Fi will send your pictures directly to your photo-sharing site, whereupon your FrameChannel account will immediately access them and your wireless digital frame will start including them in your slideshow!

Why not put a little magic on your wall with the combination of an Eye-Fi card and a wireless digital picture frame?  As I type this, pictures of my nephew in Idaho are beginning to appear on my wireless frame.  It’s prom night out there, and I got to see him just a few minutes before he left to pick up his date.  REAL TIME.

You can buy Eye-Fi cards almost anywhere fine electronics are sold, but why don’t you check them out on Amazon?  The shipping is free!

Eye-Fi Thieves Capture Themselves! So Funny!

I’ve raved before over how cool the Eye-Fi memory card is, and that everybody should have one. Well, I’m saying it again, and here’s one more reason why: if a thief steals your camera and uses it, your Eye-Fi card will send all his pictures to YOUR computer! And you can BAG THE JERK!

According to Reuter’s, Alison DeLauzon accidentally left her camera in a restaurant while on vacation, and when she went back for it, it was gone. She was very upset, for not only had she lost her camera, she had also lost tons of pictures and videos of her baby son.

But later, back home, Alison “. . . opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras. Not only is it the guy who stole our camera. . . but the guy took a picture of (his accomplice) holding our other camera.”

My husband was apparently not the only spouse to get an Eye-Fi card last Christmas! That’s when Alison got hers, too, and thanks to that magical card, she got her cameras back.

The thieves who were busily snapping pictures with their ill-gotten gains did not realize that when they walked by an unsecured network, the Eye-Fi automatically sent ALL of the photos to its registered manager on Alison’s home computer; in other words, each picture they took was immediately uploaded right smack onto her computer. Just as the Reuter’s article said, “. . . her camera “phoned home.” Just like E.T.!

Alison didn’t press charges again the restaurant employees who stole her camera – THAT’S where she and I would differ! – but yes, they were fired.

“When we finally got it back, my husband and I spent the night just sitting and watching the videos – stupid videos, like him feeding himself for the first time or him pulling himself up in his crib for the first time. We sat down one night and just relished it.”

I can’t say enough good things about the Eye-Fi memory card. We love ours, and Alison loves hers, and you’ll love YOURS when you get it. They’re about a hundred bucks and worth every penny. Ask Alison DeLauzon!

A Wireless Digital Picture Frame Is Better Than A Postcard!

I’m on a little vacation, and my husband is still working.  I could be sending him post cards, of course; they’re only a quarter apiece and they have beautiful scenery on them.

But why send someone else’s picture when I can send him the pictures I take, myself!  I’m taking pictures like mad, and adding them to my FrameChannel account the minute I get back to the house, so my husband sees exactly where I’ve been and what I’ve seen, and many of the pictures have my brother, sister-in-law, nephews, and ME in them, to make them far more personal than a purchased post card with a picture taken by a stranger.

When he gets home from teaching calculus to high school students all day, he can sit back in his comfy chair and see, sometimes just a few minutes after it really happened, exactly what I’m doing!

Next time, I’m borrowing his Eye-fi card!