Picasa Mobile Photos - Mobile Photo Mapping Next?

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/put-your-photos-on-map-and-picasa-on.html

Picasa Mobile Image Mapping Mobile Picasa Albums with Maps!

If you've ever seen a great picture and wondered where it was, wished you could visit that exact spot yourself, or found yourself itching to share a great photo with somebody -- but you were away from a computer, we've got two new features on Picasa Web Albums to help you out. First, we're excited to let you know about 'Map My Photos' -- it lets you show exactly where you took your favorite snapshots. When you share an album with friends, they can see your best photos arrayed on a map (or even Google Earth). It's the perfect way to showcase a memorable road trip or a globe-trotting vacation.

Here's how to get started: when you create a new album, just fill in the optional 'Place Taken' field. You can even drag and drop individual photos directly onto a map, and use built-in Google Maps technology to pinpoint exactly where each was shot. For a quick peek at what the results look like, check out our test gallery.

But wait! There's more. We're also launching the first version of Picasa Web Albums built specifically for mobile devices. You already have a couple of pictures stuffed in your wallet, and maybe even a few wallpapers stored on your phone. But what about all those snapshots you can't carry around? With Picasa Web Albums for mobile devices, your favorite pictures are always with you. So next time you're at a loss for words when describing just how awesome, cute, or beautiful something really was, just grab your phone for visual backup.

Of course, the mobile version of Picasa Web Albums lets you keep track of photo updates from friends and family, too. Just click 'My Favorites' from the main screen to see the latest photo albums that your contacts have posted to Picasa Web Albums -- you can even post a quick comment on their photos, using your phone. Thumbnails and photos are automatically re-sized for your device's screen, so pictures look good and download fast. All you need to get started is a phone with a web browser and a data plan; learn more here.

As you enjoy your summer travels, remember to take plenty of snaps, and share the most beautiful places in the world (and don't forget to use your phone to show off pics from back home!).

Keeping Track of Smartphone Use Statistics....

M:Metrics

SEATTLE, Wash June 25, 2007 — M:Metrics, the mobile market authority, today announced the rankings of the top mobile Web companies among smartphone users in the United States and the United Kingdom, for the month of April.

Top 10 Mobile Web Companies Visited By Smartphone Users by Percent Active Reach April 2007 ("Company" is an aggregate of company owned domains)

United States

Company	Total
Google Inc.	62.48%
Yahoo! Inc.	33.54%
Microsoft Corporation	33.36%
AT&T Inc.	21.22%
Time Warner Inc.	19.06%
The Walt Disney Company	17.00%
News Corporation	15.54%
Sprint Nextel	15.29%
The Weather Channel	15.28%
eBay Inc.	14.19%

United Kingdom

Company	Total
Google Inc.	30.94%
Orange Personal Communications	21.68%
British Broadcasting Corporation	20.90%
Microsoft Corporation	17.75%
Vodafone Group PLC	16.79%
eBay Inc.	13.08%
O2 (UK) Ltd, Service Operations	12.77%
Hutchison Whampoa Limited	12.67%
Yahoo! Inc.	10.97%
Deutsche Telekom AG	10.71%

About M:Metrics

M:Metrics is the pioneer in measuring consumer consumption of mobile content and applications, benchmarking the performance of carriers, handset OEMs, platform vendors, media companies and others. M:Metrics monthly syndicated services empower senior executives in the mobile content and wireless applications sector to make better business, creative, and production decisions informed by highly granular and verifiably true measures of subscriber consumption. M:Metrics, Inc is a private, venture funded corporation headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices in San Francisco, California.

About M:Metrics Data

Based on continually refreshed samples of nationally representative mobile phone consumers, M:Metrics reports summarize market size, device reach, and key demographic and mobile phone usage characteristics. The data presented here is drawn from an extensive survey questionnaire that collects specific device model and carrier subscription information from each month's sample of mobile phone consumers, and also drills down into specific details related to current and past usage of various mobile phone applications and content. Data collected from each sample are statistically balanced and projected to the total national population of mobile phone consumers.

Digital Imaging Statistics - The roving eye

PMA - Advanced amateur customers look toward photo retailers

According to the 2007 PMA U.S. Digital Imaging Survey, 20 percent of digital camera owners use their digital camera for artistic purposes, for moonlighting job, or to master photography skills. This segment of photo customers is called the advanced amateur or prosumer segment and has been generating much of the business at camera stores around the country for many years. Manay advanced amateurs are possible candidates looking to enter the studio photography business at some point, as well. Digital advanced amateur customers were 20 percent more likely to purchase a camera in 2006. They were also more likely to make that purchase at a camera store when compared to the typical consumer.

The advanced amateur market will be explore more in future "Data Watch" articles examining printing behavior and other characteristics of this group. One important thing to remember when servicing this segment is that they are different from Jennifer. They value top quality in equipment and printing, appreciate the advanced knowledge of photo retail employees, and speak in advanced terms. Finally, finding advanced amateur customers is not done through demographics. This segment is comprised of customers of all ages and household types. To reach advanced amateurs, retailers need to look into cross promotions, internet forums, competitions, and events.

Who is Jennifer? The most powerful photo imaging customer is the Generation X mom. A young parent aged 24-44 years old, Gen X moms are likely to maintain an active lifestyle that produces events and picture-taking opportunities. PMA is calling this powerful target market “Jennifer” to drive home the fact that these customers are living, breathing, buying consumers who care deeply about their photography.

The Semi-Pros - Why I take Digirtal Images

Where do Digital Images End Up?
Leaving pictures on the memory card was the second most popular method for storing pictures among digital camera owners in 2006. According to the 2007 PMA U.S. Digital Imaging Survey, 72 percent of digital camera owners transfer their images onto computer hard drives for storage and 53 percent burn CDs and DVDs. Still 54 percent of digital camera owners leave their images on their camera's memory card. Combined with the fact that almost a third of memory cards sold in 2006 were 1GB or larger, the needs for on-camera organization and better kiosk upload capacity is certain to intensify in the near future.

The trend of cheaper, larger memory cards becoming more readily available to consumers is not expected to stop or ease soon, either, especially in light of flash memory technology expanding into the laptop hard drive space.

Computer Hard-disk 72%
CD/DVD 53%
CD 47%
DVD 13%
Digital Camera Memory 54%
Prints 52%
Online 11%
Online FREE 10%
Online PAID 1%
Printer Memory 2%
Other 2%

PMA - Why I use digital imagery

Lastly, Digital Cameras verus Camera Phones...

Revenue from shipments of image sensors for mobile phones will grow to $5.9 bln by 2010, increasing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27.4%, up from $1.7 bln in 2005. Unit shipments of image sensors to mobile phones will grow to 1.2 bln by 2010, increasing at a CAGR of 19.7%, up from 484 mln units in 2005. In 2005, 199 mln image sensors were sold for all other applications outside of mobile phones, including digital still cameras. By 2010, this disparity will grow more, with nearly 1.2 bln sensors shipped for mobile handsets and slightly less than 350 mln shipped for other applications.

40+ Million Navigating Mobile Phones by 2012

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Cellular operators whose service is based on CDMA (and iDEN) have an advantage over other mobile operators in nearly every region of the world, largely because of the A-GPS technology originally driven by mandates to support E911 services.
  
• In-Stat surveys of US subscribers find navigation applications have a strong ability to draw subscribers from other operators and keep them loyal.
  
• The total number of mapping and navigation mobile phone subscribers could exceed 42 million worldwide by 2012.

In-Stat research suggests GPSed Smartphones will replace PNDs

GeoTagging With NIKON

Put a Billion Dollar System to Use

From Zombie Dinosaurs by Dave Johnson... you know the one?

A few years ago, I went on a little photo trek and showed off the photos. I vividly remember getting grilled about the various locations by a friend of mine. “Where were these taken?” she asked me about a particular set of photos. “Hmm,” I replied, “I don’t remember. I took so many photos, I can’t keep track.” If only there was some automatic way to tag my photos with location information, so they’d be able to tell me where they were taken. Yet another thing I’d never have to remember ever again!.....

I’ve recently been experimenting with what is surely the most elegant geotagging tool ever made. I’m talking about Red Hen’s Blue2CAN.

In my experience, a better geotagging solution does not exist. It’s a small gadget about the size of your thumb that plugs into a small port on the front of several Nikon Digital SLRs, including the D200, D2X, D2Xs and D2Hs. It communicates wirelessly to any Bluetooth GPS receiver (like the kind that comes with inexpensive navigation programs and sits on your dashboard).