Cingular, Kodak create camera phone photo album

Cingular, Kodak and Nokia are working together to spark camera phone use, and the first product is Kodak Mobile, an online photo album, according an article in CNET News. My first reaction: Nice, but no big deal....yet. Read on to find out why there's an interesting part of the "yet."

There are a few reasons why I think it's no big deal. For example, online photo albums are no big deal. They have been around for years. Cingular is just "joining the club" of other cellular operators that offer online photo albums.

Kodak itself has an online photo album and print processing site, Ofoto, that's a nice product. I've used it, along with several other online albums, such as Shutterfly.

Online versus wireless albums

One of the reasons I'm not terribly excited about Kodak Mobile's benefits is you have to pay for the privilege of maintaining the online album. After a three-month free trial, the cost is $2.99 a month. I think that's probably being penny wise and pound foolish.

I certainly have no problem with paying for services. Fair is fair. But you can sign up with Kodak's own Ofoto and maintain photo albums for free. Most other cellular operators (all?) in the U.S. have free photo albums.

If Cingular wants to spark the use of camera phones, should the company charge for using the album? You can get just about all the benefits, including online editing of photos, by using the free Ofoto service.

Where's the money?

Kodak doesn't care about maintaining camera phone photo albums. Kodak cares about selling prints of photos (and photographic paper). That's where much of the money is. The company also cares about selling photo-related products (paper photo albums, frames, etc.)

However, today's camera phones present a serious problem to Kodak, at least in the short term. The highest resolution of camera phones in the United States is 640 x 480, which looks pretty crummy when printed.

Kodak Mobile, from the demo I saw, seems to use the same editing features as Ofoto, so you're not being offered anything extra. It's just the same Ofoto service for camera phone users.

As I mentioned, Ofoto is a good service. But I question the $2.99 charge for Kodak Mobile.

Creating exciting services

The last paragraph in the CNET News article might be a bigger deal. The article concludes, "Starting in January, many of Kodak's 24,000 kiosks in the United States will let camera phone users download pictures via wireless technologies, or with a memory card, so that, for example, pictures can be printed out minutes after they are taken.

I don't know what "via wireless technologies" means. Do you shoot your photo into the kiosk via infrared? Nokia certainly uses infrared to transfer photos into camera phone products, as I wrote in September. Would the kiosk have an e-mail address to which you could transmit your photo?

I don't believe photo kiosks have been a big success in the U.S. Too much of a hassle. But kiosks for camera phone users have been an enormous success in Japan. Kids love to print photos on stickers, for example.

I am cautiously optimistic that camera phones could breathe new life into kiosks in the U.S., assuming the process is quick, easy and reliable, the price is right and consumers aren't disappointed by the photo quality. Indeed, I believe photo kiosks could be one viable part of the camera phone ecosystem I've discussed.

Working for the betterment of camera phones!

I am working informally with one company to develop a unique camera phone package. I won't say too much (you have to pay me for that!), but audio and video are the future of camera phones. Also, the photo editing capabilities offered by online photo albums have to be adapted for the handset environment.

Indeed, that's why I'm such a big fan of camera phones, as I continue to write. There are lots of opportunities for creating value.