Archive 2017-2022

December 21, 2022

My take on this year’s acquisitions in the photo or video industry

Here's my take on the 2022 acquisitions in our photo or video industry.

Companies tend to exit when the future looks rosy – or when it looks bleak;

… when there’s an abundance of cheap capital – or when there is a shortage and promising but cashflow-negative startups are considering options for an early exit. (…)

December 7, 2022

From technology showcases to real-world apps:
The first wave of photo & video generative AI apps has just landed

Our Jan. 19 Visual 1st Spotlight event will feature demos and discussions by leading developers of generative AI photo & video apps. (…)

November 9, 2022

My grab from the latest photo & video industry news

With news from PhotoRoom, Amaze, Claid, Picsart, Capsule, Nvidia, Popsa, Xiaomi, Leica, Descript, Perfect Corp., Piczo (…)

October 26, 2022

What have Getty, Shutterstock and Adobe learned from digital camera manufacturers?

Now I got your attention with this headline, you might already suspect the answer: these vendors have learned what not to do. Or, to put it differently, they’ve decided to partner with the disrupters rather than to ignore them or to haphazardly fight them when it is too late.

Who’s the big scary disrupter? For those who attended Visual 1st, it might not come as a surprise: it’s generative AI – the image creation technology that keeps making headlines on almost a daily basis with new technology and partnership announcements. (…)

October 19, 2022

The disruptive power of Generative AI

Our takeaways from Javier Ideami's Visual 1st Fireside Chat session

First, before we dive into our takeaways, here's a description of Javier's background:

Javier Ideami is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, creative director, engineer and entrepreneur, working at the intersection of technology and art. (…)

September 27, 2022

Seven reasons you can't miss Visual 1st, just 7 days from now

1. You’ll meet with senior-level decision makers at potential partner companies, who have the power to help grow your business: cutting edge photo & video app developers, AI technology innovators, software companies, cloud service providers, photo print industry leaders, trade press, and investors. These executives are coming to Visual 1st from 15 different countries. (…)

September 22, 2022

Announcing the complete Visual 1st 2022 program and speaker lineup

You’ve received bits and pieces about our Visual 1st program and speakers. As it’s just 12 days to go until kickoff, I’d like to share with you our complete program and presenter lineup.

In a nutshell, Visual 1st will feature this year: (…)

September 20, 2022

Who you will meet at Visual 1st – and how to get the most out of your attendance

Visual 1st starts in just 2 weeks. (…)

September 15, 2022

A look into the Visual 1st Conference;
by Bryan Esler, managing director Photofocus

After a virtual version of the Visual 1st Conference last year, co-chair Hans Hartman and the team are back at it, creating a in-person experience for those looking to hear from innovative thought leadership on a variety of topics in the photo and video space.

I had the chance to sit down with Hans, and ask him a few questions about this year’s conference, held Oct. 4-5, 2022 in San Francisco. (…)

September 13, 2022

Our choice of panel topics and speakers for Visual 1st – and why we picked them

With just 3 weeks to go until our 10th annual edition of Visual 1st, Oct. 4-5, I’d like to address a question we’re often asked: how do you select the topics and speakers for your conference? (…)

September 7, 2022

Image generative AI – gimmick or paradigm change?

Image generative AI (text-to-image or, broader, “any prompt to any visual media type”) has suddenly become the tech innovation story de jour in the last 6 weeks, culminating 2 weeks ago when word broke that an AI-generated artwork, Théâtre D'opéra Spatial, took first place in the digital category at the Colorado State Fair.

Emotions have run high, not only in the creative and tech communities, but also in the mass media, which have extensively covered this this prize and subsequent commotion. (…)

August 31, 2022

My grab from the latest photo & video industry news

With news from The Geniverse, OpenSea, Triller, Snap Inc., BeReal, Lightricks, Amaze, Picsart and Visual 1st (…)

August 24, 2022

My grab from the latest photo & video industry news

With news from Pew Research, TikTok, Pixelmator, Edge Imaging, ON1, Taopix, Snap, Kandao, Instagram and Visual 1st. (…)

August 10, 2022

12 slots left: Present your photo or video product at Visual 1st!

Check out the presenter lineup so far. With industry news from Locket, RevenueCat, Pinterest, ExtremeTech, Let's Enhance, Insta360 and Capsule. (…)

July 27, 2022

Instagram and Facebook – as we knew them – are dead

Om Malik. Instagram is dead. This was the conclusion last week of writer, photographer and investor, Om Malik. Much to his regrets – as he was a big fan of what was initially a mobile social network based on visual storytelling – Instagram has died. (…)

July 13, 2022

It's Visual 1st 2022 kickoff time!

What will Visual 1st be all about this year? While Alexis and I are in the midst of recruiting presenters and determining additional topics, there are already four panel discussions we're extremely excited about to announce at this time. (…)

June 29, 2022

26 sustainability initiatives shared at last week’s Visual 1st Photo Print Sustainability Spotlight

Last week, close to 70 North American and European photo print industry executives joined our Visual 1st Sustainability Spotlight to hear from 11 industry peers how they’ve developed sustainability practices aimed at reducing waste, pollution and carbon footprint. (…)

June 8, 2022

Smartphones will kill off the DSLR within 3 years – or won’t they?

Smartphones will kill off the DSLR within three years, according to Sony.

That got your attention? It certainly got mine, as the TechRadar article quotes Terushi Shimizunot, President and CEO of Sony Semiconductor Solutions (SSS), not just pronouncing that smartphones will trump that of their SLR rivals by 2024, but also that the phone’s still image quality is expected to exceed that of ILCs [interchangeable lens camera, i.e. including DSLR as well as mirrorless cameras] sometime during 2024. (…)

May 26, 2022

The rapid rise and fall of the NewProfilePic app

What happens when your top-downloaded photo app is in the crosshairs of British tabloids and an army of online conspiracy theorists? (…)

May 11, 2022

What do the world's top dowloaded apps have in common?

Why not – let's do a quiz!

Below are SensorTower’s estimated Q1 worldwide app downloads for iPhone, iPad and Google Play.

Two questions:

1. What do 3 of the first 5 most downloaded apps have in common?

2. How many all-time downloads had TikTok accumulated by the end of Q1 this year?

OK, these were just the warmup questions, as I would really like to encourage you to ponder this third one: (…)

April 27, 2022

Announcing: In-person Visual 1st + Photo Print Sustainability Spotlight

The Visual 1st conference will be held Oct. 4-5 in San Francisco; The Visual 1st Photo Print Sustainability Spotlight will be held June 22 as a 1.5-hour streamed event.

Early Platinum Sponsors Visual 1st: Zenfolio, Viesus, Sensaria, Picanova. Early Gold Sponsors: ip.labs, Printbox, EyeQ, ADS, Mediaclip. (…)

April 20, 2022

6 potentially game-changing imaging technology innovations

Is it me, or do we really see way more imaging technology announcements popping up each week that have game-changing potential? In any case, here are 6 announcements from just the last couple of weeks that each could completely change how we view, capture or edit visuals.

And yes, these technology announcements are “way out there” – some more than others. So don’t throw away yet your 2D camera, your 360 camera, your 3D modeling software, your light source, your AR glasses or your expensive lidar sensor. (…)

April 6, 2022

Our takeaways from "The Metaverse – what’s in it for me; what’s in it from me?" Visual 1st Spotlight.

The Metaverse: What is it?

As a first order of business our expert panel described their visions for the metaverse, starting with Justin Melillo, whose broad definition was then further fleshed out by the other panelists:

Justin Melillo (Mona): the metaverse is a persistent and interconnected world of virtual environments that serve as a gateway to various online experiences and also underpins the physical world. For us, the metaverse is an open one, i.e. it is decentralized and owned by the actual users participating in it rather than a single vendor. (…)

March 23, 2022

My grab from the latest photo & video industry news

With news from CEWE, D-ID, Qualcomm, Flickr, Snap, Twelve Labs, Skylum, PAI, Sony, and PicsArt (…)

March 5, 2022

The Russia - Ukraine war: thoughts and actions from our photo & video industry friends

The Russia – Ukraine war is also affecting many in our photo & video industry – whether their teams, customers, business partners, or loved ones reside in Ukraine in increasingly fearsome circumstances, or they’ve felt they needed to take action to help Ukrainians in need.

Here is a roundup of what we’ve heard so far. (…)

March 2, 2022

My grab from the latest photo & video industry news

With news from: TikTok, Popsa, Journi, Bria, Shutterfly, Halide, Meta, Sensor Tower, Reels, Lightricks and axle ai (…)

February 16, 2022

My grab from the latest photo & video industry news

With news from Cloudinary, Picsart, Samsung, EyeQ, YouTube, Popsa, Kapwing, Veed, Milk Video and The National Institute for Dementia Education (…)

February 10, 2022

News update: Eric Cheng of Meta to speak at our Visual 1st Metaverse event

My partner Alexis Gerard and I are extremely pleased to announce Eric Cheng as our fireside chat presenter at our “The metaverse – what’s in it for me; what’s in it from me?” Visual 1st Spotlight Series event on March 15. Following the 1-on-1 fireside chat, Eric will also participate in our panel discussion, along with Alexis Khouri, Sr. Director of Business Development and Strategy, 3D & Immersive at Adobe, Justin Melillo, Co-founder & CEO at Mona, and Kirby Winfield, Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc. Eric is Immersive Media Lead at Meta Reality Labs, and is an award-winning photographer, technologist, producer, and author. Previously, Eric was Director of Aerial Imaging at DJI and Director of Photography at Lytro. (…)

February 2, 2022

Announcing “The metaverse – what’s in it for me; what’s in it from me?” Visual 1st Spotlight Series event

While there are many opinions about what exactly the metaverse currently is and how it will evolve, there’s little doubt that it will touch our lives and businesses in many profound ways. We also know that it’s going to be visual to the core. This will bring about opportunities and challenges for any company active in the larger photo & video ecosystem on the scale of those triggered by the introduction of the Internet and the smartphone ecosystem.

We’re pleased to announce the first 3 speakers: (…)

January 19, 2022

The 7 reasons behind 41 recent acquisitions in the photo & video industry

The question often comes up at our Visual 1st conference and in our strategic client workshops: What criteria to apply when selecting potential targets for strategic acquisition? And, from the standpoint of startups seeking an exit, how to select suitable potential acquirers?

Examining recent trends can provide helpful insights on these vital issues, so I’m happy to share a brushstroke analysis of 41 recent acquisitions in the photo & video space aimed at discerning the most compelling rationale behind each of these acquisitions. (…)

January 6, 2022

2021 – A review of visual tech

Within its half-open, half-closed status, 2021 will be remembered as a transition year: A melting pot between ending lockdowns, rising vaccines and masks mandates, new variants, ending and restarting restrictions. But if anything, it did nothing to slow down the pace of online innovation—quite the opposite. If visual tech experienced a landmark year, 2021 could be it.

The winners

Synthetic media (…)

December 15, 2021

The 8 photo & video ecosystem trends that stood out in 2021

Below are 8 trends in the photo & video ecosystems that stood out for me in 2021, many of which were derived from news or analyses provided in this year's Visual 1st Perspectives pieces or discussed at this year's Visual 1st conference. (…)

November 16, 2021

The new visual content ecosystem. Why there is no better time for selling DIY visual creation shovels.

On one side, an economy exponentially craving for content. On the other, a static, unprepared landscape ripe for disruption. The stage is set for a redistribution of value in a vibrant and volatile environment: Witness the formation of a new visual content ecosystem. (…)

October 27, 2021

Congratulations to this year’s Visual 1st Awards winners! + Visual 1st and DIY Video Summit announcements

This year's Visual 1st Awards winners:

Best of Show - zerolens
Best Technology - autoRetouch
Best Business Potential – Bloom AI
Special Recognition - vAIsual

Check out our judges’ considerations for choosing these winners. (...)

October 18, 2021

Here's your last chance to join these companies at Visual 1st & the DIY Video Summit

If you haven't already purchased your ticket: Here's your last chance to join these companies at Visual 1st & the DIY Video Summit. (…) Join a broad representation of imaging entrepreneurs and senior Fortune 500 executives from 18 different countries attending, including (…)

October 14, 2021

How we’re empowering attendee participation at our virtual Visual 1st conference and DIY Video Summit next week

Remember the in-person industry conferences when folks who shared a common interest in certain industry topics organically found each other during lunch or the reception, and ended up in deep and insightful conversations?

Or were spurred to do so by the organizers who’d reserved certain tables for discussing a particular Birds of a Feather topic?

While we can’t do things in person at this year’s virtual Visual 1st and DIY Video Summit, our ShareMeChat streaming provider this year enables attendees to virtually mingle and discuss selected topics in its interactive breakout rooms. (…)

October 12, 2021

Who are next week's 39 Visual 1st and DIY Video Summit Show & Tell presenters?

Seven days before Visual 1st and nine days before our inaugural DIY Video Summit, we're pleased to announce our lineup of 39 innovative developers who will show their products on the virtual stage at Visual 1st and the DIY Video Summit. (…)

October 7, 2021

Six reasons you can’t miss Visual 1st & the DIY Video Summit

1. You’ll join a high-powered & global audience of senior-level decision makers and potential partners who have the power to help grow your business: cutting edge photo & video app developers, mobile vendors, camera manufacturers, AI innovators, software companies, trade press, and investors.

A whopping 76% of our Visual 1st attendees are founders, or director level or above. 67% work at mid to large sized companies, 33% at startups. (…)

September 30, 2021

Building – and profiting from – an expanding photo & video ecosystem

In the days of film cameras and silver-halide photo printing, there was a well-defined ecosystem with the likes of Kodak, Fujifilm and Agfa dominating the pack.

In the days of digital cameras, that photo ecosystem broadened, with new industry leaders, such as Adobe and Apple, inventing desktop-based photo editing, coupled with a new breed of digital photo printing enablers, such as Epson and HP.

In today’s smartphone-, social network-, and cloud-dominated world that ecosystem has morphed again and become larger and more diverse than ever (…)

September 27, 2021

Trending: photo & video app developers turning to the business market with DIY solutions

Visuals (from cave drawings to photos, videos and phodeos) are our primary (and primal) communication and memory preservation medium. They’re crucial for selling products or services, and to communicate effectively within organizations.

Historically, businesses have relied on photo or video professionals (photographers, videographers, photo editors, video editors, in-house creative departments, outside agencies, and more recently Social Influencers and Gig photo or video pros) to produce the bulk of their visuals.

The mainstream popularity of authentic user-generated content, the importance of timeliness, segmentation (creating customized versions for different audiences or purposes), scale, and cost efficiencies are changing the equation: Businesses are going DIY – do it yourself – for many of their photo and video needs, leaving only the highest-end visual projects to imaging professionals. (…)

September 23, 2021

Hear from these stellar Keynote and Fireside Chat speakers at Visual 1st and the DIY Video Summit

Lionel Mohri, VP of Brand Experiences & Storytelling, Intuit

Oren Boiman, SVP for Small Businesses and Head of Video Creation, Vimeo

Eli Lubitch, President, Beamr

Hans Hartman, President, Suite 48 Analytics

Colin Culross, Founder & CEO, Emortal

Don MacAskill, CEO & Chief Geek, SmugMug & Flickr

Ben Arnold, Executive Director & Consumer Technology Industry Analyst, The NPD Group (…)

September 21, 2021

Two perspectives today based on industry announcements in the last few days:

Adobe – where werest thou? (spoiler alert: think Lightricks and Canva)

When smartphone cameras innovate in a mature market (spoiler alert: think Apple and Xiaomi) (…)

September 14, 2021

Dear photo & video industry colleague

My partner Alexis Gerard and I are pleased to invite you to join a high-level gathering of your industry peers at Visual 1st (Oct. 19-20), and at our inaugural DIY Video Summit (Oct. 21) – just 4 weeks from now!

We recommend signing up right away to take full advantage of this year’s innovative pre-conference networking opportunities!

Why attend Visual 1st and the DIY Video Summit?

We can’t recall a time when the photo and video industry has seen such exciting and paradigm-shifting opportunities. Consider, for instance: (…)

September 9, 2021

This week's photo & video tech industry news

We are pleased to announce our partnership with Dscoop, which includes co-marketing activities and providing industry insights to Dscoop's members.

Why are Dscoop and Visual 1st partnering? Check out my brand new article, Boosting photo print products sales: it ends – but doesn’t start – with best-of-breed photo print product apps, which does not only cover my analysis of the trending photo printing monetization opportunities, but also the perspectives on this partnership from Dscoop and Visual 1st fans: (…)

August 25, 2021

My grab of the pre-holidays photo & video tech season announcements

We’re a few weeks before the storm: the annual tech product pre-holiday announcement season that will be upon us.

In the meantime, here is my grab of this week’s photo or video technology news that stands out: (…)

August 12, 2021

8 trends among the top-ranking photo & video apps

A deep dive into SensorTower’s US app store data for H1 this year

The US photo & video app market is alive and well. It not only boomed during the COVID heydays last year with many consumers spending more time at home, but it has also shown continued growth of monthly users and revenues the first half of this year, according to a new report by SensorTower, which graciously allowed me to share the data presented in this article. (…)

July 28, 2021

Announcing speakers to date for Visual 1st and Visual 1st DIY Video Summit

My partner Alexis and I are thrilled to announce our initial lineup of fireside chat speakers, panelists, Show & Tell demo presenters and judges for our 9th annual Visual 1st conference on Oct. 19-20 and our inaugural DIY Video Summit on Oct. 21. (…)

July 14, 2021

OMG – Instagram turns into a video app

The photo world has been up in arms since Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced what even casual Instagram users already knew: Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app – it’s in essence an entertainment and branding platform, focusing on Creators (“to help them make a living”), video, shopping and messaging. (…)

June 30, 2021

Visual 1st and Visual 1st DIY Video Summit news

1. Welcome first sponsors!
2. Tickets on sale now
3. Meet & Greet venue
4. Call for Show & Tell presenters

And a few more things: Profoto, PastBook, Capsulre, Shutterfly, Softbank, EyeQ, Perfect Corp., Facebook, Shopify. (…)

June 10, 2021

What blew me away at WWDC?

Frankly, I am a bit underwhelmed by the scope of the WWDC announcements, in particular those that are relevant to the photo and video industry. It’s pretty obvious that Apple has spent a lot of energy on porting specific iOS features to MacOS and v.v., but this might have very well come at the expense of more exciting innovation relevant to our industry.

Still, here are the announcements I felt stood out: (…)

May 26, 2021

Industry giants and academics tackle the harmful parts of imaging AI

A few weeks ago I described the broad adoption of AI among imaging companies in my Where Gartner’s Hype Cycle goes wrong: today’s surge in real-life AI imaging solutions piece, while noting that besides broad adoption of AI the imaging industry is also stuck in what Gartner calls the Trough of Disillusionment – specifically the realization that AI-based imaging solutions can also cause harm by tricking and misinforming people (deepfakes) or by displaying racial or gender biases.

The good news: awareness of these negative effects is mounting and major AI imaging players and academic researchers are developing solutions to eliminate – or at least reduce – the most negative aspects. (…)

May 12, 2021

My take on this week’s imaging industry news

Including news on CEWE, Facebook, EyeQ, Snap, ByteDance, and YouTube Shorts.

April 29, 2021

Where Gartner’s Hype Cycle goes wrong:
today’s surge in real-life AI imaging solutions

We are probably all familiar with Gartner’s Hype Cycle, which describes the typical adoption path of new technologies.

Like any abstract representation of a complex reality, things are a bit messier in real life – take the adoption of AI technologies in our photo & video ecosystem. (…)

April 14, 2021

Offering DIY photo and video apps – or services? Separate apps or integrated platform?

4 takeaways from Canva’s spectacular DIY visual communication platform growth

I’m intrigued by how consumers and businesses decide when to do things themselves vs. when to hire outside help. What spurs my interest in particular are the opportunities for either innovative DIY tools (such as for video creation) or agile gig outsourcing services to more effectively cater to the (latent) demands among consumers and businesses. (…)

March 31, 2021

New study: Do-It-Yourself video creation apps are driving a surge in user-generated videos

Study reveals how a new generation of apps are empowering average businesspeople and consumers to produce sophisticated videos.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) video creation apps – apps used by non-video professionals – are a powerful driver behind the current surge in sharing and viewing of user-generated videos, according to our new study.

Under the hood, AI-based innovations are enabling this new generation of apps to overcome the traditional dilemma of creative power versus ease of use. (…)

March 17, 2021

Will the lockdown of the photo industry ever end? Camera makers without vision

The figures on the camera market in 2020, published by the Japanese industry association CIPA on the occasion of the digital CP+ tradeshow/conference, show a terrible picture of our industry: Only 8.9 million cameras were shipped last year, 59 percent less than the year before.

In view of the Corona pandemic and the related canceled events, vacations and trips, this is no surprise, but it is still bad.

Even worse: Those who had hoped that, as the last remaining photo fair with global awareness, the digital edition of the Japanese CP+ imaging show and conference would provide new ideas to the industry, were bitterly disappointed. (…)

March 3, 2021

Photo & video app news

With news from Dispo, memmo, FiLMiC, Kaleido, Canva, Samsung (…)

February 10, 2021

Apple’s upcoming app tracking changes: from opting out to opting in.

If you have a photo or video app that generates revenues through advertising, or if you advertise your products through Facebook or Google, the battle around the proposed changes for IDFA (Apple ID for Advertisers) is one to closely watch. (…)

January 27, 2021

Tackling bit-rot is long overdue. Help is on the way to preserve our digital visual memories.

What if, at some point in the future I – or my (grand)children – can’t open my JPEG photos or my MP4 videos any longer? Or if these files are stored on an ancient device running an antiquated OS?

It’s an issue we all worry about – before we shrug our shoulders and move on, as it’s hopeless anyway. Sort of how some – but fortunately not all – of us respond to the devastating reports of climate change.

But when Vint Cerf, one of the co-creators and founding fathers of the internet and currently VP & Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, thinks differently, we need to pay attention. (…)

January 13, 2021

Crisis, what crisis? Moonpig to go IPO and become the next unicorn

Moonpig, the UK-based online personalized greeting cards and gift retailer, is planning to go public at a valuation that is expected to surpass £1B ($1.4B), according to British news outlets.

Moonpig started as a personalized photo greeting cards company 20 years ago. It since also added gifts, such as flowers, champagne and chocolates to its product lineup. (…)

December 30, 2020

Framen acquired by Axel Springer –
when “keep-on-pivoting” pays off

Remember Framen? This German startup’s CEO, Dimitri Gärtner, did a Show & Tell presentation at Visual 1st two years ago, showing his company’s digital frames photo viewing solutions. To my surprise I learned a few days before Christmas that a company no less than Axel Springer had just acquired the majority of Framen’s stock.

Really, a multibillion-dollar global technology and media empire went through the efforts of acquiring a digital frames startup? (…)

December 16, 2020

The 2020 photo & video industry roundup: 6 major disruptions; the 270 companies on our radar

2020: What a year!

Let’s start with the 6 major disruptions that have impacted most of us in the photo and video industry:

COVID changed everything, forcing major photo & video vendors and imaging startups alike to pivot, as consumers changed behavior, and channel partners or supply chain partners struggled, adapted, or thrived.
AI imaging solutions reached the masses through AI-powered smartphone cameras, photo management, photo editing, image compression, and auto-generated photo print product solutions. (…)

December 2, 2020

Timing is everything: what photokina could have learned from CES

Setting or reflecting the trends – that is the question

Much has been said about the demise of photokina, announced last week with a statement that the world’s largest photography tradeshow is “suspended indefinitely,” 70 years after its first iteration. A sad end of an era.

I was not planning to write about this as well (yes, the camera market is structurally declining, yes, going back and forth between a bi-annual and annual event didn’t help), but I couldn’t help myself to also chime in and share some other perspectives as a relative newcomer to the conference, having attended three times in the last six years, i.e. when the show was already going through various stages of decline. (…)

November 10, 2020

The impact of COVID – clear winners and losers so far, but still a fuzzy picture

The impact of COVID-19 on our economy at large and our photo & video industry in particular is a hard one to summarize. Some parts of the economy (and our industry) are hurting and others are doing remarkably well.

What’s even harder is to predict how things will develop this holiday season and the first part of next year. Take the impact of yesterday’s announcement of the efficacy rate of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine: it shook the stock market in multiple directions. (…)

October 21, 2020

2020 Visual 1st Awards go to Profoto, Mobius Labs, Dotphoton and Snapbar

At this year's just concluded virtual edition of Visual 1st, the premier conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, a panel of high-powered industry experts presented the four Visual 1st Awards to the most outstanding among 28 products competing in this year's show-and-tell demo sessions.

The judging panel for the Visual 1st Awards is composed of prominent representatives of the hi-tech media, intellectual property and investment communities, whose endorsement is so critical to app developers. This year's judges were: (…)

October 8, 2020

Who are this year's Visual 1st Show & Tell presenters?

Five days before Visual 1st, the world's premier conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, we're pleased to announce our lineup of 28 innovative developers who will show their products on stage at Visual 1st.

We selected our Show & Tell presenters exclusively from companies who have never presented their solutions before at Visual 1st, in addition to the demo slots reserved for sponsors. (…)

October 5, 2020

Six reasons you can't miss Visual 1st, just 9 days from now

#1. You’ll be among our largest-ever number of attendees, consisting of senior-level decision makers and potential partners who have the power to help grow your business: cutting edge photo & video app developers, mobile vendors, camera manufacturers, AI innovators, software companies, trade press, and investors.

Last year 76% of attendees were director level or above, with 67% working at mid to large sized companies, 33% at startups. See last year’s attendee breakdown. (…)

October 1, 2020

Machine learning and visual content – what's next?

There’s no end in sight as to how machine learning could be applied to visual content. Yes, image recognition can trigger powerful and easy ways for users to manage their photo or video collections – but there are also many other innovative ways in which imaging machine learning could be applied.

In our Making Imaging Machine Learning Super Smart panel at Visual 1st we’ll get a sense of what’s feasible in three distinctly different application areas: photo enhancement, video creation, and marketing. (…)

September 24, 2020

Boost your industry network at Visual 1st – Meet exciting new or existing partners at this year's virtual edition

OK, we can’t offer our usual award-winning outdoor reception this year at Visual 1st, but my partner Alexis Gerard and I have received great suggestions and feedback for how to implement new ways to network, find partners and be discovered as potential partner before, during and after this year’s virtual edition of Visual 1st, Oct. 14-15.

Here is an overview: (…)

September 22, 2020

To acquire or be acquired – that is the question

Over the years we’ve seen a number of past Visual 1st presenters been acquired by larger incumbents that opted to buy innovative startups rather than develop solutions in-house. In recent years mobile photo or video app developers were the prime targets; today the targets are more among startups who excel at deploying AI for innovative photo or video applications.

But when large incumbents acquire other sizable incumbents, we’re witnessing a different ballgame. (…)

September 16, 2020

This year's Visual 1st Ph.D. lineup

Dive deep into 3D sensor technologies, camera AI-empowerment, and large-scale UGC photo monetizing with three Ph.D.-holding business leaders.

My partner Alexis and I are extremely pleased to announce three world class presenters in three separate fireside chat sessions at Visual 1st, Oct. 14-15. What do these speakers have in common? Not only do they have stellar academic backgrounds that include Ph.D.s in challenging fields, they are also business leaders driving imaging innovation through real-world products. (…)

September 2, 2020

PlanetArt acquires CafePress; Circle Graphics acquires Bay Photo

I thought it was fire season here in California; but apparently it is M&A season. Congratulations to Visual 1st 2020 speaker Roger Bloxberg of PlanetArt and Andrew Cousin of Circle Graphics, long time supporter of Visual 1st and 2020 Gold sponsor. (…)

August 27, 2020

Announcing the first 14 imaging developers to demo at Visual 1st 2020, Oct. 14-15

Seven weeks before this year’s virtual edition of Visual 1st, the world's premier conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, we're pleased to announce our initial lineup of 14 innovative developers who will show their products at Visual 1st. (…)

August 19, 2020

What’s trending among top-ranking photo & video apps?

I occasionally check the photo app categories in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to keep a finger on the pulse of what is trending in these stores. Since it has been a while and since we’re gearing up to recruiting 30-some photo/video developers to demo their apps in our Show & Tell sessions at Visual 1st, I thought it was a perfect time to have a fresh look at what's currently going on in these stores. Being a numbers guy, I could also not resist to extract some key data and explore whether there are any meaningful takeaways to detect. (…)

August 5, 2020

Visual 1st 2020 – Our plans for going virtual

My partner Alexis Gerard and I cordially invite you to participate in our Visual 1st 2020 – Virtual Edition conference. For reasons you will easily understand, this year we won’t be able to hold the 8th edition of our annual conference at our beloved Golden Gate Club in the San Francisco Presidio.

While we, as well as our loyal attendees, will miss the opportunity to see old friends and industry colleagues in person, and to meet new ones, we also look forward to reimagining the conference in exciting new ways to accomplish the same – and more, and to bring some of these enhancements to our in-person conference in 2021. (…)

July 29, 2020

Pro Photographers and their Camera Use – Are the pros ready to switch to smartphones?

We just completed a survey among 881 professional photographers in primarily Europe and North America that researched these pro’s use of standalone cameras and smartphones, along with their camera preferences and needs.

The core questions I’d like to address here: (…)

July 8, 2020

When innovation adoption waves get messy – and what that means for both standalone and smartphone cameras

We’ve all seen variations of this graph depicting innovation waves. The idea is that, at some point, a new product category expands beyond its initial early adopters and becomes the new mainstream category, and therefore replaces the incumbent category over time.

However, innovation patterns are often messier. Sometimes the pendulum swings back and the incumbent solution becomes resurgent. Sometimes it takes way longer than was thought to replace the incumbent. Sometimes the much-heralded new category deflates and never moves beyond early adopters. (…)

June 17, 2020

A COVID recession? Yeah, but we’re again – or still – spending, big time!

With new unemployment claims totaling 44M over the last 12 weeks in the US, and economic uncertainty at a record high, you’d expect consumers tightening their belt, in particular in regards to purchasing items that go beyond the absolute household necessities. But, nope, that’s not the case.

In fact, stocks surged yesterday, to a large extent because US retail sales jumped by a record 17.7% in May over April, coming in at more than double the consensus estimate for a rise of 8.4%. This followed a record 14.7% plunge in retail sales in April, with the reversal suggesting consumer spending was picking back up as businesses began to reopen in May.

June 3, 2020

COVID-19 Mitigation and What's Next

Now that in many parts of the world we’re slowly moving beyond the most immediate crises imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a good time to reflect on how to move forward. What's more, what can we learn from the opinions of fellow photo and video industry executives and entrepreneurs?

We will discuss the long-term ramifications of COVID-19 for our industry more in depth at our October 14-15 Visual 1st conference, but in the meantime, I’d like to share some perspectives of my partner Alexis Gerard and myself, based on the responses to our COVID-19 Mitigation and What's Next Survey, which we recently conducted. (…)

May 20, 2020

Are videos overtaking photos? – Not so fast…

For a long time, videos have been heralded as the Next Big Thing, the capture format that was going to replace still photography.

But technology disruption often progresses more slowly than one might think. Or much faster than one might think. Or ends up stopping dead in its tracks. So where are we at with videos? (…)

May 6, 2020

Announcing: the COVID-19 Mitigation and What's Next Survey report

Before you download the free report, below is a quick recap why and how we've conducted our survey among photo & video industry executives.

It’s hard to describe the impact COVID-19 has had so far without sounding like a broken record –the one you keep hearing over and over in the news, or when talking with colleagues, customers or industry partners. In many parts of the world the human tragedy and economic impact are such that they were, until recently, unfathomable – and we are not even close to seeing the end of the tunnel.

Like so many other industries that rely on humans being in near proximity to each other when producing, selling or consuming products or services, our photo and video industry is suffering. (…)

April 22, 2020

Share your opinions with your industry peers - join our COVID-19 Mitigation and What’s Next survey

The economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the photo and video market is still unfolding and now is the time to not only deploy measures to weather the storm but to also prepare for the new market realities that will set in once the medical crisis is over.

While we’ve already heard of quite a few initiatives from various players in our photo and video ecosystem – ranging from photo app developers to camera vendors to photo print product providers – my partner Alexis Gerard and I kindly ask that you to fill out a 5-10 minute survey. (…)

April 1, 2020

Visual 1st 2020 – we’re on! Here are our plans

I’m writing to update you about Visual 1st 2020. With virtually all photo/video industry tradeshows and conferences cancelled or postponed, my partner Alexis Gerard and I would like to share our plans for the Visual 1st 2020 conference, which have been shaped by many conversations with industry friends and alumni attendees.

We strongly believe – now more than ever – that transformative changes brought to our industry, both by the global pandemic itself and by major impending technology innovations ranging from the rollout of 5G to mass deployment of depth sensors, require a safe environment for imaging industry executives and startups to connect, strategize and learn together. (…)

March 18, 2020

And the most impactful potential improvement to photo print products is…

Stop for a moment and think about the question before looking at the graph below: What single change to the discovery or fulfillment of photo print products could do most to grow the business?

Being able to see printed product samples in person at a retail store?
Being able to get the photo products faster through same-day delivery or pickup at a nearby store within 1 hour after you place your order?
Having easier ways to discover what types of innovative photo products exist these days?
Automatically receiving each month a photo product created from your camera roll, based on a subscription price that’s 70% off from individual orders? (…)

March 4, 2020

Building the Next Photo & Video Ecosystem

As I often get questions about which photo or video vendors exist in specific market segments, I thought it was a good idea to map a sizable number of them along the typical stages of the imaging workflow. Check out the 200+ companies in this infographic. (…)

February 19, 2020

New 2020 Photo Print Product Survey provides valuable insights for tackling major photo product industry challenges

Photo output providers face three challenges: how to avoid margin-eating price discounts, how to be relevant to smartphone users, and how to attract new photo print product buyers.

While much can be speculated about the wisdom of various strategies to tackle these challenges, the new Suite 48 Analytics 2020 Photo Print Product Survey provides a range of data points that enable vendors to be more strategic about tackling these challenges. (…)

February 5, 2020

New research: Sharing and viewing photos & videos in the home – How digital frames keep reinventing themselves

A little more than a year ago I described four novel approaches to the concept of digital frames – you know, the framed photo viewing screens that came out in the early 1990s, were rejuvenated in the early 2000s thanks to the internet, and are at the present time yet again evolving by responding of today’s photo & video sharing trends. If you missed that article, I suggest checking it out!

But how popular are these digital frames these days and what types of features could trigger consumers to buy them? While this could be the subject of a dedicated study, I added two digital frames questions to a broader photo survey among 1249 US consumers who take more than 5 photos per month with their smartphone (…)

January 22, 2020

Quibi’s bold attempt to reinvent visual storytelling for mobile-only viewing

The Quibi rollout at CES deserves more space than I had in our last newsletter. Below are not only more details, but also my perspectives on why Quibi is such an intriguing startup that bends all the usual rules in startup land.

What is Quibi? Simply put, Quibi (its name derived from “Quick Bites” but pronounced kwih-bee) is Netflix but with short-form, mobile-only, video. Or it’s YouTube but with professional-only, mobile-only video. Quibi is slated to offer on-the-go, bite-sized professionally created movies (or movies in bite-size chapters), documentaries and daily shows of up to 10 minutes in length, optimized for viewing on smartphones. (…)

January 9, 2020

2019: The Year of the Face

It’s been ten years since Instagram launched and not long after, the selfie. It has taken the same amount of time for visual recognition to understand how to read our faces. If anything, 2019 has been the year where faces have taken center stage of visual tech, for good and bad…

All of your faces are belong to us

The most frequent usage of our faces is facial recognition for surveillance and security. (…)

December 23, 2019

The 8 most discussed consumer imaging topics in our 2019 Visual 1st Perspectives pieces

It’s the time of the year to look back at what occupied our minds in 2019 and could guide us as to what might be in store for the coming year.

To that end, I went through my 2019 Visual 1st Perspectives pieces and identified the 8 most discussed consumer imaging topic areas.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. M&A: Exit successes and consolidation

2. The Digital Camera Market

3. The Photo Organizing Market (…)

December 11, 2019

Photoshop for iPad – what did Adobe (not) learn from Photoshop Touch?

As I’m spreading my attention between Thanksgiving, Sinterklaas, and Christmas parties, I’m taking the easy – but very timely – route by republishing my 2015 article published in Kaptur: A requiem for Photoshop Touch: the app that users loved or hated.

What makes it timely? The recent release of Photoshop for iPad app. With an average rating of 2.9 stars out of 5, it received fierce criticism, as for instance reported on here. The critique centers around the app offering too few features at a too steep price (it will require a $21/month Photoshop Creative Cloud subscription starting February). (…)

November 20, 2019

The holy grail: triggering game-changing consumer imaging innovations

As an analyst who tracks and advises on innovation strategies for consumer imaging companies, the most difficult – and the most impactful – question is whether particular imaging innovation trends are slated to “change the game” or “only” trigger incremental changes. This question comes up regularly for each stage of the typical consumer imaging journey: photo (or video) capture, enhancement, organizing, sharing, viewing and printing.

Take, for example, a camera that can fly and be remotely controlled – was that a game-changing or incremental innovation? Or a camera that weighs less and is less noisy than the models we’ve been using for many years? A photosharing app that lets you share images that automatically vanish after the recipient has viewed them? A new breed of apps that let you auto-curate and auto-design your photobooks through the click of a few buttons? (…)

November 6, 2019

Photo & Video App Store revenues + Photo Print Products the brick & mortar way

The impact of the introduction of subscriptions in the app stores can’t be underestimated. [We’ve discussed this at the time of the introduction at Visual 1st 2017 with Itai Tsidon, co-founder of Lightricks (makers of Facetune) and last year with Omar Arambula, co-founder of Instasize.]

At the same time, the adoption of video apps keeps growing, as we also reported on in our Videos and Phodeos study. A new analysis of the Apple App Store by TensorTower shows the ongoing impact of these two trends. (…)

October 16, 2019

Leaving one’s comfort zone:
What can we learn from the Google Pixel 4?

Let’s say your company has developed very strong expertise that could be applied to other use cases or markets than those you’ve successfully pursued. That makes it very tempting to expand. However, while some companies do this successfully, a large number of others learn through the school of hard knocks that applying their technology to previously unchartered territory is a lot harder than they’d thought. Especially when they move from being a software to a hardware or a cloud company, or v.v.

Here are a few examples: (…)

October 8, 2019

2019 Visual 1st Awards go to Bellus3D, Skylum, GotPhoto and Generated Photos

At this year’s just concluded edition of Visual 1st, the premier conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, a panel of high-powered industry experts presented the four Visual 1st Awards to the most outstanding among 30 products competing in this year’s show-and-tell demo sessions.

The 2019 Visual 1st Awards winners are:

· Best of Show award: Bellus3D

· Visual 1st Best Technology award: Skylum

· Visual 1st Best Business Potential award: GotPhoto

· Visual 1st Special Recognition award: Generated Photos (…)

September 26, 2019

30 innovative imaging developers will demo their products on stage at Visual 1st

Seven days before Visual 1st, the world's premier conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, we're pleased to announce our lineup of 30 innovative developers who will show their products on stage at Visual 1st.

We selected our Show & Tell presenters exclusively from companies who have never presented their solutions before at Visual 1st, in addition to the demo slots reserved for sponsors. (…)

September 23, 2019

Seven reasons you can't miss Visual 1st, just 10 days from now

1. You’ll meet with senior-level decision makers and potential partners who have the power to help grow your business: cutting edge photo & video app developers, mobile vendors, camera manufacturers, AI innovators, software companies, trade press, and investors.

Last year 75% of attendees were director level or above. with 70% working at mid to large sized companies, 30% at startups. See last year’s attendee breakdown; see this year’s registered attendees to date.

2. You’ll interact with top industry thought leaders, including the following Keynote & Fireside Chat presenters (…)

September 18, 2019

When AI, AR, computational photography, and the future of digital cameras take center stage

At Visual 1st this year, two topics will again feature prominently in discussions during breaks and at our networking receptions:

How do AI and AR change, or will change, the way we offer photo or video solutions to our customers?
How narrow can the feature gap between digital cameras and smartphones become? And what does this mean for camera/phone manufacturers – and everyone in the imaging ecosystem whose customers use either or both device type(s) to take photos or videos?

In just 2 weeks from now (October 3-4), we will also deepen our understanding of these crucial strategic questions by tackling them head-on in three exciting sessions featuring an impressive lineup of innovative entrepreneurs and strategic thinkers: (…)

September 12, 2019

Who will benefit from the emerging gig photography ecosystem?

Now that both consumers and businesses embrace the benefits of the gig economy, it’s no surprise that gig photo services are gaining popularity with offerings ranging from “photographer on demand” (allowing you to order a photographer for your child’s birthday party through the click of a few buttons), to photo editing (freeing you up from needing to learn the ins or outs of Photoshop), to photo organizing (having professional photo organizers come to your home and go through your proverbial shoeboxes to curate the photos you really care about). (…)

So, who then is making money from this burgeoning gig photography phenomenon? (…)

September 9, 2019

Why is the photo print industry doing well, at a time when the camera market is crashing?

Last week, as I posted a note on LinkedIn referring to the latest depressing camera sales data from CIPA, it dawned on me how differently the photo output business has fared compared to the camera business – two industries that traditionally were interwoven and followed parallel trajectories.

At a time when many camera vendors are suffering, the photo print industry has managed to stay relatively stable in size (and is actually growing in some markets), while becoming less dependent on digital camera usage (read: success in attracting smartphone photographers as customers). (…)

September 4, 2019

The Leading Edge: Advancing computational photography, managing Deepfakes, growing photo print revenues, re-discovering photo masterpieces

With 29 days to go until Visual 1st, I’d like to introduce you to four highly accomplished individuals, each a prominent expert in one of the leading edge areas mentioned above.

They are pushing the boundaries in their respective fields, and we’re honored that they will share their perspectives and vision with us in four thought-provoking Fireside Chat sessions at Visual 1st, October 3-4 in San Francisco. (…)

August 21, 2019

Visual 1st with 43 days to go: Announcing 42 presenters, 18 sponsoring vendors, 7 media/association partners …

My co-host Alexis Gerard and I are very pleased with how our Visual 1st 2019 conference is shaping up and we'd like you to be part of it!

With 43 days to go, buying your ticket now will optimize your pre-conference exposure through a listing on our Attendee Trailers page and our Attendee page.

What is Visual 1st?

Attended by imaging industry decision makers from the Americas, Asia and Europe, Visual 1st is the premier executive conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem. The conference hosts (…)

August 7, 2019

A digital camera compared to a smartphone camera is like …

Over the years I’ve heard many people compare digital cameras to smartphones by using metaphors.

Why metaphors? The power of metaphors is that they can trigger new thoughts or insights that go beyond the obvious. In the matter of cameras vs. smartphones: gain a deeper understanding of these photo capture platforms’ respective strengths & weaknesses than one typically already has from just reviewing product stats or usage data.

And why would that deeper understanding matter?

For one, if you’re considering allocating resources to either platform (for instance, as a retailer, consumer, employee, investor, or ecosystem partner), the better you understand how one capture device platform compares to the other, the smarter decisions you can make. (…)

July 24, 2019

AI imaging news roundup: the good, bad, and ugly

New AI imaging products, research papers and scandals keep popping up – so, I thought it was a good idea to present a roundup of the AI imaging announcements of the last two weeks. Needless to say, there was a lot of commotion around FaceApp but, before we get into that, let’s start with the other AI imaging news. (…)

July 10, 2019

What's in store for the Gig Photography market?

I’d like to share a few thoughts spurred by our recently released Building the Gig Photo Economy study, as well as the conversations I’ve since had with quite a few folks using or suppling Gig Photography services.

First of all, we live in an era of diminishing stigma against outsourcing household tasks that consumers traditionally have done themselves. Coupled with compelling use cases for deploying gig photographers or photography workers as I wrote about earlier, there are plenty of opportunities for innovative vendors to offer services that make finding, engaging, paying, and communicating with gig photographers frictionless and affordable.

It’s a market that is still in its infancy and I expect (…)

June 18, 2019

Shutterfly + Snapfish:
does more of the same make sense?

The news last week was of course the three-fold announcements regarding Shutterfly: New CEO, acquisition by Apollo Global Management, and the additional acquisition of Snapfish (from District Photo) by that very same Apollo.

Much has already been said about these announcements, but I’d like to zoom in on the move to bring Shutterfly and Snapfish under the same umbrella, which has more or less the same effect as Shutterfly acquiring Snapfish, and gives the combined unit a substantial share of the US photo print product retail market (35% based on 2016 numbers) (…)

June 5, 2019

The gig economy brings lifestyle values back to photography

Consumers are busier than ever – or at least feel busier than ever. This accounts for the immense popularity of gig economy services that help us outsource tasks we can’t, or would rather not, do ourselves: cook, walk our dogs, clean our house, fix that jammed door, run errands, organize our closets, drive to our destinations.

However, when it comes to recording the events of our lives, which we increasingly find compelled to record through an estimated 3 trillion photos per year, we’re still overwhelmingly behind the camera, capturing the photos and videos ourselves. Too often that’s at the expense of enjoying the moment. (…)

May 30, 2019

The case for Photographers on Demand

It’s been fascinating to see innovative apps or services come to market that enable gig photographers (professional photographers or more casual photo hobbyists) to market their services in the frictionless manner we’re all so used to when ordering our Uber ride, booking a room through Airbnb or hiring a graphic designer through Fiverr.

The twist here is that these photo gig solutions cater to a market that has seen gig workers since its inception – long before the birth of the words “gig” (in the jazz scene during the 1920s) and “gig economy” (during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.) (…)

May 1, 2019

Shoebox – the end of an era

Last week Shoebox announced it’s closing its door on May 22nd, signifying the end of an era when one innovative cloud-based photo management/synching solution after another came to market in the 2010-2015 timeframe.

Founded in 2012, Shoebox has always stood out to me for its novel interface, which enabled users to search for photos by leveraging the photo’s metadata in innovative ways. For instance, you could filter your photo collection by the camera model you used, your location, time of the week, year and month, or season. (…)

April 30, 2019

How did we get to the era of abundance photography?

How has the photo industry changed in the last 200 years? Check out this 6-minute fragment of yours truly being interviewed by Allen Saakyan of Simulation, a video show featuring interviews with a broad range of thought leaders in their respective fields.

April 16, 2019

Vimeo acquires 2-time Visual 1st Gold sponsor Magisto for a reported $200M

Congratulations to our friends from Magisto, who announced yesterday that they have been acquired by streaming video platform, Vimeo, for a reported $200M.

Magisto has raised nearly $23 million in venture capital over time from investors that include SanDisk Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures, but it hasn’t raised any funding since 2014 (hint: they’re probably profitable). Magisto has an estimated 100 million users and employs a team of about 75, of which 90 percent are based in Israel.

Alexis and I have had the pleasure of having CMO Reid Genauer and CEO Oren Boiman speak at Visual 1st (then still called Mobile Photo Connect) in 2014 and 2015 respectively, when they were still an early startup. (…)

April 3, 2019

What if you were a digital camera vendor?

Camera sales are declining and form only a minuscule fraction of the smartphone sales. It is not because people have stopped using digital cameras altogether – they still use them, but use them less often. In addition, the camera upgrade cycles are getting longer with no revolutionary technology innovations enticing photographers to buy the next generation of models (even the introduction of mirrorless appears to have had more of a cannibalization than a market-expansion effect).

As a result, quite a few smaller camera companies have closed doors or they (or their cameras) were sold at rock bottom prices, including (…)

March 20, 2019

Photo print products: How to compete in a mature market?

Views of four innovative vendors (Mediaclip, Pastbook, Cloudprinter, Jondo)

At the photokina Business Forum Imaging conference two weeks ago I had the privilege of moderating a panel with four innovative companies, who shared their perspectives on how to tackle the challenges they (or their customers) face in today’s competitive photo print product market. (…)

March 13, 2019

Four players who enable the monetization of photo engagement

Photo engagement and monetization go hand in hand – or should go hand in hand, as we heard in an exciting panel at the photokina Business Forum Imaging conference in Cologne last week.

With monetization opportunities abound – from advertising/ sponsorship to selling photo tools/apps or photo print products to offering visual search-enabled shopping solutions, it is easy to ignore the conditions required for monetization to succeed. It’s exactly the challenges of meeting these conditions that are the focus of our panelists’ business models.

What is needed to enable monetization of consumers who are taking, sharing or viewing photos in ever-growing numbers? In our panel we discussed 3 important requirements: (…)

February 20, 2019

Visual 1st 2019 – your input requested

Alexis and I are in the early stages of planning this year’s Visual 1st conference, to be held October 3-4 in San Francisco, CA.

As always, we want to ensure this 7th edition of our conference for the imaging ecosystem is again a stellar learning and networking event! To that end, we ‘d love to hear from you: What do you think your industry colleagues and yourself will most benefit from? (…)

February 6, 2019

What’s happening in the photo app stores?

About once a quarter I spend some time analyzing the US app store rankings for the top photo and video apps, while also checking out any new apps that might have made it into the top positions.

Below are my high-level takeaways, based on an analysis of the US app store data for the top 65 free or grossing photo/video apps on February 1. (Contact me if you’d be interested in acquiring the complete analysis + data set). (…)

January 23, 2019

5G is upon us. What now?

If CES was any indication, 5G is supposed to change the world as we know it. And after all the noise we’ll no doubt hear next month at Mobile World Congress, even my 96-year-old mother-in-law will demand 5G on her phone. Before we look into how 5G might impact the world of consumer imaging, let’s first explore what it is and review the most discussed use cases in the consumer tech world at large. (…)

January 10, 2019

The power of impromptu demos

Remember Cycloramic, the app that used the iPhone's vibrator to have it auto-rotate to take 360 degree pictures? Founder Bruno Francois did an impromptu demo after one of my mobile photography presentations at PMA 6 or 7 years ago and wowed everyone. Then he started pivoting, got Marc Cuban to invest in him, and turned his technology into a 3D solution for the car industry. Now he has successfully sold his company for $22M, Marc Cuban calling it Shark Tank's “No. 1 success story.” Read this fascinating story all the way to the end, as there was another impromptu demo that eventually prompted his acquisition! (…)

January 10, 2019

The six CES imaging announcements that jumped out at me

Among all the noise of 5G, foldable phones, 8K monitors, a gazillion smart this or smart that devices (from smart cooking to smart toilets), and the oh so smart this and the not so smart move from CES, here are six imaging-related announcements that jumped out at me: AEE Selfly, ROKiT, Canon, Obsbot Tail, Kodak Smile, Insta360 (…)

December 19, 2018: The six consumer imaging trends that stood out in 2018

December 4, 2018: The Osmo Pocket - when a drone company launches a handheld camera and gets it right

November 20, 2018: Digital Photo Frames Take 3

October 31, 2018: Ouch - Why Shutterfly's stock tumbled

October 25, 2018: 2018 Visual 1st Awards go to Insta360, CaptureLife, Embody Digital, and Pixsy

October 15, 2018: Monetizing Photos through Print: Winning Tactics in a Rapidly Evolving Environment

October 11, 2018: Seven reasons why you can't miss Visual 1st, just 11 days from now

October 8, 2018: Announcing 26 innovative imaging developers to date to demo their products on stage at Visual 1st

October 3, 2018: When one camera doesn't do it all

September 25, 2018: Emerging monetization models for the photo and video ecosystem

September 19, 2018: Apple's breakthrough new dual camera system - or not really?

September 5, 2018: Videos and phodeos surge into the Mainstream