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Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Wagner who wrote (2424)	11/7/2000 8:17:53 PM
From: Joe Wagner	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4808

I have mentioned Cameras and Cell Phones merging here before. It looks like it is starting to happen. This will be good for storage growth. Just wait until Video Cameras and Cell Phones merge in a few years to create millions of Broadcasters sending data streams to websites and thru email. Video is the future of the internet, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. This type of proliferation and integration of video into the Internet will drive storage needs through the roof. Technology that sorts thru it and organizes the video into Meta Data (thank you for your previous post on Meta Data, Douglas) for easy manipulation I think will do well once this happens. Joe Tuesday November 07 04:17 PM EST Smile! The camera and cell phone unite By Richard Shim, ZDNet News FlashPoint and Sprint connect the dots between digital imaging and wireless technology to paint and send a pretty picture. FlashPoint Technology Inc. and Sprint PCS are teaming up to let enterprise users send digital images wirelessly. The new service will be connecting two of the tech industry's most popular consumer devices: the digital camera and the cell phone. Analysts say that by combining the capabilities of the two, FlashPoint and Sprint are casting a big net. • Digital cameras: Do I hear sub-$200? • Virus Alerts & Solutions • The Best Palm Pilot Software • Free MP3 Music Resources Digital camera sales for 2000 are expected to grow 100 percent, hitting 6 million units this year according to research firm IDC. Cell phones are selling in the ten of millions per week according to The Kelsey Group. The service will first be available to enterprise users. This effort is part of an ongoing attempt by Sprint to appeal to business users. The wireless carrier also recently announced Wireless Web for business, which enables wireless access to the Web at 56Kbps. In light of its recent efforts, Sprint has seen a 285 percent increase in the number of business accounts since last September. Rollout set for 2001 The wireless digital imaging service will be in customer trials through the end of the year and will be commercially available in early 2001. Pricing has not been determined. The new service is based on the FlashPoint's Photivity platform, which was announced Tuesday. Photivity consists of the Digita OS residing in cameras, the gateway that enables the transfer of the picture as well as photo hosting on the Internet. According to FlashPoint officials, a half million cameras use the Digita OS and that number is expected to increase to a million after Christmas. Digita is the intelligence behind cameras allowing users to attach the pictures in e-mails as well as record audio with pictures. Market share may be the only thing holding this wireless digital imaging service back initially, according to IDC analyst Ron Glaz. "To use this service you have to have an Internet-enabled Sprint phone and a digital camera with the Digita OS, which is about 20 percent of the market," Glaz said. "And the size of the market using both is even smaller." Camera manufacturers supporting Digita include Epson America Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news), Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE:EK - news), Minolta Corp., and Pentax Technologies Corp. Kodak's DC290 will support Photivity out of the gate. Glaz added that he was sure there was an opportunity for wireless image sharing because wireless technology is such a popular market and so many companies are evaluating new opportunities. InfoTrends Research Group Inc. analyst Michelle Lampmann agreed adding, "Business users are used to the idea of communicating immediately, and this will fit into that scenario very well."