Posted on: Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Photos zipping around in telecommunications boom
By Ben Rand
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle
Everything was perfect. The guests were there, bearing gifts. The refreshments were on the counter, the cake cooling in the refrigerator. The children and other guests bubbled with excitement.
Sara Lynn Ianni could think of only one thing missing: her big sister.
Lara Ianni, 20, was away at Ithaca College and couldn't make this party to celebrate the third birthday of a family friend's twin daughters.
So Sara Ianni brought along her new Kodak digital camera and snapped the moments — 17 in all, including a half-minute video of guests singing "Happy Birthday." Soon after the party ended, the pictures and video landed in her sister's e-mailbox.
It's the kind of scene that makes Eastman Kodak Co. executives smile.
Kodak and others believe digital photography has the potential to transform how and when we stay in touch, by making pictures more accessible to more people, in more places, more often. The company argues that networking will enable photographers to do more with their pictures, which will subsequently trigger demand for products and services impossible in the age of film.
For inspiration, Kodak looks to the mobile phone business, where consumers spend for extras, such as downloadable ring tones.
"I'm sure when the cell phone manufacturers started, there wasn't a line item for ring tones," says Pierre Schaeffer, director of business strategy for Kodak's digital and film imaging systems.
Kodak isn't the only player. Picasa Inc., a developer of photo-editing software, introduced a feature in January that will allow consumers to move digital snapshots from their PCs to TiVo Inc.'s digital video recorders, where the photos can be viewed and e-mailed. Others are trying instant picture messaging, Napster-like peer-to-peer technology and wireless printing.
The objective is simple: Move pictures out of albums and shoeboxes and into the mainstream of daily life, Kodak and others say.
"People will want their pictures available, whether they are captured on film by a professional or a single-use camera or digitally by a digital camera, video camera or camera phone,'' says Lisa Gansky, Kodak's general manager of digital imaging services. "People are going to want access."
And because the forms of access are multiplying rapidly — from prints to PCs, CDs, DVDs and beyond — Kodak sees a future of opportunities.
One of the most promising comes from cellular telephones with built-in digital cameras. Analysts predict that consumers worldwide will buy more of those devices this year than digital and film cameras combined.
Cell phone cameras let users snap and transmit pictures at once to other phones or e-mail addresses. Signs point to this becoming a big-time activity: Last year, for example, users of Sprint Corp. mobile phones sent 66 million picture mails. That's 125 a minute.
Marcus Johnson, a Rush-Henrietta (N.Y.) High School senior, joined the camera phone craze by chance three months ago. The camera phone cost only $20 more than his original choice.
In the brief time he has had it, Johnson has used the phone mostly as a mobile album.
"I have it set up so that if my friends call, their faces pop up on the screen," Johnson said.
