Category Archives: study

New study analyzes what’s driving the explosion in user-generated videos and hybrid photo-videos

imaging, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, phablet, photo organizing, photo sharing, prosumer, Social Media, study, tablet, technology, video September 5, 2018 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

Videos and phodeos surge into the Mainstream Consumer video sure ain’t what it used to be. The category now includes numerous variations, ranging from full-length to short-form narratives, plus what could be called “phodeos”: hybrids of photos and videos such as Boomerang clips, Instagram Stories, and even the (now venerable) GIF animations. Due in large part to these new options that free consumers from the “one (huge) size fits all” straightjacket of the past, motion imaging is more popular now than ever. Are we witnessing a bubble? Or…

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…

Sculpture: Deadly Sins #1, Pure Products USA, by Nova Ligorano a

Visual Tech Losers of 2017 and Winners of 2018

advertising, analytic, AR, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computer vision, Content Recognition, depth imaging, Facebook, flickr, getty, in-image, marketing, mobile, photo sharing, Pinterest, research, Snapchat, Social Media, study, UGC, video, visual recognition, VR December 9, 2017 Paul Melcher 2 Comments

Sometimes, great things come out of failure. Especially in the startup world. As we look back at the year past, we take one last look at what failed, with the hope that they will generate great, unsuspected outcomes. As well, we take a peek at 2018 and its probable heroes, with the firm understanding that our vision just might not be that accurate. Losers of 2017 Ads in images. A long time coming. And while we will certainly continue to see them for many years to come – bad ideas die…

Statistics: How filters are used by Instagram’s most successful users

analytic, content, editing, filter, Instagram, marketing, mobile, PhotoTech, research, Social Media, study, UGC October 20, 2017 Stefan Pettersson Leave a comment

To facilitate execution of global, large-scale influencer marketing campaigns at Relatable we rely a lot on data to give us insights. Using a sample of about 2 million Instagram accounts (with a minimum of 1,000 followers) and 40 million posts I’ve been digging deep compiling statistics, finding insights, or just discovering some quirky facts. I will share those findings in a number of articles. Instagram filters are used to enhance photos, to give them that extra edge or just set the mood. But to what extent are they used?…

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,…

Seeking ethics in visual tech

analytic, Artificial Intelligence, big data, computer vision, Content Recognition, Facial recognition, PhotoTech, research, study, visual recognition September 19, 2017 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

The Trolley Problem is a famous ethic thought-experiment. Here how it goes: There is a Trolley barreling down the railroad tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the side track. You have two…

By 2022, there will be 45 Billion Cameras

analytic, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, big data, computational imaging, computer vision, Content Recognition, depth imaging, Emotion analysis, Facial recognition, imaging, mobile, photo organizing, PhotoTech, study, technology, visual recognition August 18, 2017 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

It might have all started when Snapchat rebranded itself “A camera company”. Or even long before, in 2002, when Nokia decided to put a camera on their cell phones. Whenever it happened, it is still really only the beginning… “It” is the moment the camera became forever separated from its original format, a lens on a movable box, and its original intent, recording personal memories. The shift was triggered when film became digital and thus transforming images into data files. Not only could images be easily and…

Going Deep – the race for depth imaging smartphones is on

3D, Augmented reality, computational imaging, content, depth imaging, imaging, interview, light field, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, study, technology August 16, 2017 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Our smartphones will soon be depth imaging devices, featuring cameras that measure depth information for each part of the image. Lenovo already came out with the Google Tango-based Phab 2 phone last year and with the upcoming release of the iPhone 8 we’ll finally find out why Apple paid $350M to acquire the Israeli company PrimeSense back in 2013 (PrimeSense originally provided the technology behind the Microsoft Kinect game accessory). The market for depth imaging and sensing devices is booming, according to the recently released Smartphone Depth Sensing report from Woodside Capital Partners and Yole Développement. With a CAGR of 37.7%…

Photo storage 4.0 – it’s deduplication, stupid!

content, Facial recognition, Interface, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo organizing, photo sharing, Search, study August 3, 2017 Hans Hartman 1 Comment

In the first part of this two installment piece, we reported on the following findings from our latest survey among 458 North American smartphone photographers: The median number of photos that consumers believe they take per month is remarkably similar to what it was 1.5 years ago – it is neither plummeting nor ballooning. Smartphone photography has matured. Even with ephemeral visual communication rapidly gaining popularity, most respondents still believe that most of their photos are long life photos (“keepers”) Most consumers hoard their photos on their…