Digital Frames - September 2005
Are these the picture-perfect gadgets for displaying your digital images?
There's no denying that digital cameras are hot items. The Consumer Electronics Association reports that nearly 50 percent of U.S. households own a digital camera. And according to the 2004 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Technology Impact Survey Report, a whopping 77% of REALTORS® also own digital cameras. Those numbers are growing by the second, no doubt.
But what is being done with all of those digital pictures? We reported back in June 2000 that some consumers were turning to digital frames to display and share their digital photos. This report explores the current state of this technology and its key players.
What Are Digital Frames?
Digital frames are electronic devices that look like regular photo frames, but display your digital images via a connection to the Internet, a computer, or a digital camera. The first of these devices, like the Sony Cyberframe, hit the market in the late '90s. These older generations of digital frames were pricey, required cabling to the Internet/PC and power, and could only store so many images. With greater storage capability, access to images via the web, and wireless technology, performance of the newer digital frames has greatly improved. Digital frames today can store anywhere from a few dozen to thousands of images and display them in single or slideshow format on an LCD screen.Digital frames range in size, but the more popular ones mimic the size of conventional picture frames: Ceiva 2 offers a high resolution 5x7 LCD screen; the MemoryFrame comes in 5x7 and 8x10 frames; and the Wallflower 2 is available in either a 14.1” or 12.1” screen. Wallflower Systems, Inc., even offers oversized screens by custom order for commercial use.
How Do They Work?
Depending on the model, digital frames require a connection to the Internet, computer, or digital camera in order to transfer images. The sleek Ceiva 2 Digital Photo Receiver frames, for instance, receive and display digital photos by way of the phone line -- provided you subscribe to Ceiva's PicturePlan on an ongoing basis, that is. Simply upload the pictures to the Ceiva website and, by next day, 30 new images are transferred to the connected digital photo receiver. The PicturePlan also offers access to news, local weather forecasts, TV listings, horoscopes, and more, in daily slideshow format.
The MemoryFrame Digital Photo Frame offers a USB interface for quick transfer of images from other digital cameras, memory cards, or computers. Still better, the MemoryFrame Wireless Edition includes a wireless adapter for "no wire" transfers of pictures from your computer to the frame. The MemoryFrame utilizes standard sized wood frames, allowing you to customize it to reflect your preferred style and taste. You can even record voice and music .wav files to personalize the pictures in your frame.
The Wallflower 2 has a more elegant look, and the price reflects it. Crafted of fine hardwoods and finished metals, the Wallflower products utilize WiFi wireless networking, allowing you to sidestep those extra cables and memory cards. It holds thousands of images and can also play music and video files. Best of all, utilizing its patent-pending Pollinate e-mail technology, you can easily e-mail photos to pre-determined individual Wallflower frames to have them updated automatically.
Potential Uses & Impacts on the Real Estate Industry
Digital frames like Ceiva are ideal for introducing Internet-enabled services to people without Internet access. For example, a grandparent without Internet access or desire to use a computer would be a great candidate for this technology. Grandma gets the frame as a gift, plugs it into her phone line, and gets new digital images on her frame whenever the gift-giver updates the Ceiva website with new photos -– all without Grandma ever going near a computer!
Originally intended as a means to display digital photos, digital frames offer yet another way to package and personalize entertainment -- and perhaps, someday soon, advertising. You determine which images, music, videos, and news will be fed to your frames and others you've given as gifts or have around the office.
Although they are still not a heavy-hitting technology in the real estate industry, digital frames at best make unique closing gifts. But the technology could still evolve as a marketing tool for REALTORS®. After all, digital signage and touch-point technology are used widely for advertising purposes.
You can easily imagine offering homebuyers a digital frame to which you feed a regularly updated slideshow of suitable properties on the market. At closing, the photos are changed to feature digital images of your buyers' new home. After closing, the digital frame is a keepsake for them, future business for you.
For now, though, digital frame vendors are targeting their smaller products to consumers and their larger products (oversized frames and digital signage) to businesses. Digi-Frame, for instance, mainly sells its 23-inch wall-mounted frame to museums, government agencies, and restaurants. In Toronto, a funeral home recently purchased twenty oversized digital frames to replace low-tech memory boards with high-tech slideshows to enhance visitations. Pacific Digital, maker of MemoryFrame products, offers a selection of stand-alone and wireless digital sign solutions. Wallflower also delivers business and advertising content in digital frame format.
Drawbacks
The cost of digital frames has come down considerably, while the technology has improved to offer more options for the money. Perhaps the most notable drawback, then, is that many digital frames are not entirely wireless and still require power cords. Also, digital frame vendors and products come and go at a fast pace. But the fact that there are plenty of digital frame products available on the market is a good sign. In fact, Ceiva, who was a key player in our 2000 report, continues to be so today.
Costs
Digital picture frames vary in cost, and some include additional service fees. The Ceiva 2 Digital Photo Receiver costs under $150, and requires an annual $99.95 subscription plan. The MemoryFrame Digital Photo Frame ranges from $185 to $460 range. The Wallflower 2 ranges from $700 to $900.
- Mary Martinez
NAR's Web Wizard Report - No. 71 (September 2005)
For Further Reading
Picture this: frames move beyond images, (USA Today, May 4, 2004)
How digital picture frames work, (HowStuffWorks)
Questions or Comments?
Send an e-mail to NAR's Web Wizards.
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