Kodak Mobile is seeing a significant amount of interest in people using its service to download wallpaper images to camera phones, according to an interview with senior officials of Kodak's stragetic product and services group in the January 2005 issue of Photo Marketing magazine.
Kodak officials also say that while camera phones are affecting sales of single-use cameras, they aren't destroying the market.
Lisa Gansky, general manager of digital imaging services at Kodak, says, "Mobile has been a whole new space amplifying our core business." Most of the activity has been in Europe but there's interest in the United States, too.
Image version of ringtones
She says that "as we see people purchase and discover the cameraphone, we’re seeing a lot of uptake on the Kodak Mobile, including the wallpaper service.
"This is essentially taking a photo you love from your account, and pushing it to your cameraphone, so it becomes your wallpaper there.
"It’s sort of the image version of ringtones. That service is taking off, and we’re seeing pretty good traction in the United States and a few countries in Europe."
Anticipating growth
Kodak looks at the number of photos uploaded and the number of images and online photo albums that are share, she says.
"All those are experiencing growth that is twice the category growth. We measure the online services category as growing 40 percent, year-on-years," Gansky says.
"On the mobile side, we see the normal technology adoption cycle, where people will become aware of a new technology, and become enchanted with it."
Camera phones versus single-use cameras
Kodak is seeing camera phones result in decreased sales of single-use cameras (or One-Time-Use-Cameras, as the magazine terms it), but the decrease isn't devastating.
Mary Jane Hellyar, the senior manager for film capture at Kodak, says, "In Japan, we’re seeing some impact. But the decline in a market that’s already seeing 2-megapixel cameraphones is still relatively tame. It’s only down 6 - 7 percent, while conventional film is down 22 - 25 percent.
"In that market, anyway, it’s certainly not having the impact that OTUC is destroyed by cameraphones. That’s encouraging to us, and it makes sense."
My view is that camera phones will increasingly eat into the single-use camera market. It's only a matter of time.
Exploring other wireless products
One of Kodak's latest photo printers, the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Plus, can receive photos via Bluetooth and infrared from cameras phones and via WiFi from its new WiFi-enabled EasyShare-One digital camera.
Richard Stearns, the general manager of home printing for Kodak, says the wireless option is "kind of a gadget for people who have fun doing that. It’s cool and fun to do, right now.
"It’s not a mainstream feature, but it’s pointing to a future where everything is some sort of wireless. We want to participate in that. Kodak wants its devices to connect in any way the user would like.
"It’s just the beginning. Longer distances, more power and speed in a wireless environment are eventually where we will be. Wireless is the next environment in the next ease-of-use development."
Interview with Nokia
The January issue of Photo Marketing also contains in an interview with David Watkins, Nokia's director of imaging for North America, part of the multimedia business unit.
There's not much new information. He says 200 million camera phones were sold last year compared to 90 million in 2003. Most of the statistics I've seen put camera phones in the 150 million range for 2004, but who knows?
Watkins seems to favor a vertical form factor for camera phones rather than the traditional horizontal form that we're seeing from a variety of handset manufacturers.
He says, "Two-handed use can be a little awkward in certain circumstances. To capture that instant moment, it’s easier to pull your cameraphone from your pocket and snap."
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