Removing the bottleneck and enabling ordering.
That was two key future development areas that caught my eye at PMA@CES.
What is the bottleneck? The sheer quantity of images that people take on their phones is astounding.
The percentage of images printed off them is also astounding....but in a bad way.
The bottle neck is simply all these images jammed into a device with little or no way to get out easily.
Last weeks report of the PhotoFast device to easily get images off iPhones is the first step in getting access to these images.
The next is the apps themselves that people use. Apparently only 5% off photo apps on the market have the ability to send images from the app to somewhere to print. Any wonder why people are not printing!
Talking to Gabe Cano of Color Services in Santa Barbara gave terrific insight into the world of printing from apps. His store prints all the images produced by one of the top (and my personal fave) apps Hipstamatic.
He is considering closing his retail store... not because it isn't profitable, it is. But simply because of the massive workload his store has on their hands providing Hipstamatic prints to the world.
If you have the app and haven't printed from it yet I suggest you give it a go. Check out their quality packaging that is made to suit the style of so many 'hipsta' users.
How did a little store in Santa Barbara get such a plum printing job?
They called the designers one day to tell them how much they loved their app and if it was ok for them to promote Hipstamatic Photo Walks in their area.
The connection was made and the future is bright.
It will be fascinating to watch how all the other photo apps take their products to the next logical stage.
The more people can use the images off their phone the more we all stand to benefit.
One of the social networking points of interest that struck me at the conference was the increasing use of Klout and LinkedIn as a tool by employers and suppliers when considering employing or working with people. One company stated that they no longer accept resumes, they simply look you up on LinkedIn. The world is seriously changing!
Overall the show was a bit of an anti climax with regards to hardware product releases but that was to be expected with Photokina not too long ago and many major releases being made there.
The stand out camera for me though would have to be the upgraded Fuji X100-s, Fuji are developing a knack of producing serious cameras for serious amateurs - and who better to look after those customers than specialty?
