Category Archives: photo merchandise

Pursuing low hanging fruit or the long tail?

computer vision, content, editing, imaging, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo merchandise, prosumer, Social Media, technology, Visual 1st August 29, 2018 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

The proliferation of cameras, visual formats, and monetization methods are transforming the consumer imaging industry It’s not really new: consumers want – and are getting – more and more finite choices for buying exactly the types of products they need. Specialty retail stores are making a comeback, SMBs with niche products can now easily get nationwide (and to some extent overseas) distribution through Amazon, and big brand vendors keep adding collections of boutique brands that address specific use cases and consumer segments. What is new…

Visual 1st 2018 update: Announcing 35 speakers, 13 sponsoring vendors, 7 sponsoring media/associations

AR, Augmented reality, computer vision, content, depth imaging, Facial recognition, imaging, Marketplace, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, phablet, photo merchandise, photo organizing, photo sharing, PhotoTech, Social Media, tablet, technology, video, Visual 1st August 15, 2018 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Greetings! I hope the summer is treating you well. My co-host Alexis Gerard and I are very pleased with how our Visual 1st 2018 conference is shaping up and we’d like you to be part of it! With 68 days to go until Visual 1st (formerly Mobile Photo Connect), buying your ticket now will optimize your pre-conference exposure through a listing on our Attendees-to-date and our Attendee app trailer pages. It will also give you a 15% chance of winning an Insta360 Nano S camera ($239 value). Courtesy of our partner Insta360, we’ll raffle 15 of these…

Visual apps: Photo, Video, Photo + Video?

Augmented reality, computer vision, content, Content Recognition, editing, imaging, Marketplace, mobile, photo merchandise, photo sharing, PhotoTech, research, Snapchat, study, video July 11, 2018 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Last year we changed the name of our conference, from Mobile Photo Connect to Visual 1st. Besides wanting to affirm our focus that visuals are increasingly at the core of how people communicate and retain their memories, we also felt we needed to let go of the words “mobile” and “photo” in the event name. Why? As was the case in the early 2000s when having a website and internet strategy became common practice and companies, therefore, stopped calling themselves “internet companies,” we felt that “mobile” is…

Announcing The 2018 Photo Print Buying Survey study

analytic, big data, content, editing, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo merchandise, research, Social Media, study, transaction June 8, 2018 Hans Hartman 1 Comment

The photo print products use case: A relic of the past? Or teeming with new opportunities? It’s been four years since we conducted our last photo print product survey. Given how dramatically the world of photo taking, enhancing and sharing has changed since, we decided to measure today’s consumers’ behavior and opinions regarding buying photo print products, resulting in The 2018 Photo Print Buying Survey study, announced today. What are the dramatic changes that could very well have changed consumers’ photo print product buying behavior? Not only are consumers taking…

Innovative solution providers tackle the ever-growing headaches of photo management and storage

content, editing, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo merchandise, photo organizing, photo sharing, prosumer, Search, study September 28, 2017 Hans Hartman 1 Comment

It’s a given: we are all overwhelmed by the sheer number of photos we take, or that are being shared with us. With some of these, it’s no big deal if you accidentally missed viewing them, or if you can’t locate them again after you’ve first enjoyed them. With others, it does matter: According to our recent survey, 58% of photos on average are considered to be “long life” keepers. So we want to know on which device or cloud service these important photos reside,…

WWDC takeaways: lots of great news for photo app developers, but one major puzzler

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computational imaging, content, Content Recognition, Facial recognition, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, news, photo merchandise, photo organizing, photo sharing, tablet, visual recognition June 9, 2017 Hans Hartman 1 Comment

The photo app developers I spoke with are overwhelmingly excited about a range of WWDC announcements, even though one of these dumbfounded several developers. We’ll get into that one later; let’s start with the four most exciting announcements. ARKit: making mixed reality easier to create and more realistic to view Apple’s OS 11 developer ARKit enables developers to build mixed reality apps that interpret the imagery from the user’s iPhone camera by identifying surfaces, tracking motion, estimating scale as well as ambient lighting, and by providing fast and…

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Google: what’s wrong with a lack of jaw-dropping announcements?

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computer vision, content, Content Recognition, Facial recognition, google, Interface, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo merchandise, photo sharing May 23, 2017 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

In short: Nothing. With an emphasis on incremental improvements to Google’s photo organizing, sharing and search solutions, Google’s maturing solutions are now becoming so easy, efficient, and helpful that many consumers will feel they can’t live without them. Perhaps equally important, Google is opening up more and more of its supporting AI technologies to developers – for companies who can’t afford to hire an army of AI PhDs. The Google I/O announcements important to mobile imaging vendors To put the photo-related announcements in perspective, note…

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The five most interesting product launches at Mobile World Congress (Barcelona) and Business Forum Imaging (Cologne)

computational imaging, Facial recognition, flickr, imaging, Interface, mobile, phablet, photo merchandise, photo sharing, PhotoTech, tablet, technology March 9, 2017 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Nostalgia, minimalistic product design, and a new approach for connecting DSLRs to the cloud Mobile World Congress Nokia 3310 – As discussed previously, today’s infatuation with instant printing reflects consumers’ desires – not just for instant and more personal ways to share their photos, but also for nostalgic retro products. At Mobile World Congress, Nokia (actually HMD Global, the company licensing the Nokia brand) announced the Nokia 3310, a modern variation of the iconic Nokia feature phone. Light – While the Nokia announcement got all the attention, a startup called Light (not to be…

From Artificial Intelligence to Intelligent Imaging

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, content, Content Recognition, Facial recognition, imaging, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, phablet, photo merchandise, photo sharing, PhotoTech, Snapchat, Social Media, tablet, visual recognition February 8, 2017 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Last year at Mobile World Congress I expected the buzz to be about smartphone innovations. Instead, what most people talked about was IoT, the Internet of Things. My highlight was brushing my teeth with the Oral-B Genius smart toothbrush at one of several sinks lined up in the company’s booth. The idea was: you plop your smartphone onto the mirror with a provided suction cup and the toothbrush’s position detection technology uses your smartphone’s camera as well as the brush’s motion sensors to track how…

Mobile Photo Connect announces its program and speaker lineup for October 25 San Francisco conference

computer vision, content, Content Recognition, imaging, marketing, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, phablet, photo merchandise, photo organizing, photo sharing, Social Media, tablet, technology, UGC, visual recognition October 6, 2016 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Mobile Photo Connect, the leading forum where entrepreneurs, investors and senior executives gather to discuss the key technology and business issues driving the surge in mobile imaging and visual communication, announces its program and speaker lineup for its October 25 conference. The event’s theme, “Shaping the world of smart mobile imaging,” will be explored through a mix of presentations, panel discussions, and technology demonstrations: Fireside Chat Session How to get your photo app covered by the major hi-tech sites How to get your photo app covered by the…