Somebody should manufacture a 4 x 6 high resolution LCD display with an integrated CF/SmartMedia reader and forget about the phone modem and web downloads.
100% on the money, Aus. My thoughts precisely.
I keep thinking to myself, $8 monthly fees to dial-up and download a small handful of pictures? These people must be on weed. They might as well charge $1,000 for the device, they might sell nearly as many. Stupid, stupid business model.
Do they want to sell 10,000 of these or 10 million? Just provide a screen that can take flash cards and forget the stupid dialup connection.
The "need" here is the screen that can rotate pictures conveniently off a flash card. The web-based/middle-of-the-night download based system that must be pretty expensive to implement is the "nice" that virtually no one has ANY need for, especially if there's a recurring fee attached.
The units, mass produced, would easily meet the consumer market sweet spot over the next few years, and I guarantee SOMEONE will go after the space. Then they'll put the stupid CEIVA business model out of business.
On a related topic, this whole 'subscription-based' model that everyone seems so keen on (ie, all-you-can-eat music for $16/month or somesuch) is also STUPID IMO. No mass market there, especially now that the mp3 cat's out of the bag. The only viable mass market model, IMO, and if implemented soon and well, is minute fees per quality song download AND the right to put the music in any format we d*mn well feel like.
Geeesh. Off soapbox.
Andre |
