Internet-Enabled Digital Picture Frames Will Ultimately Rule the Market

Written on Aug 21, 2008 by Brian and filed under Knowledge Base, News

Research and Markets recently published a research report that essentially asserts that the increased use of home servers to manage digital content will cause certain devices, like digital picture frames, to alter the way they work. We’re already seeing a big push from D-Link, Kodak and others to include wireless connections in their frames for the main purpose of connecting to home media servers or online photo sharing services.

R&M is definitely right in their assertion. Buying a digital picture frame, then picking out your favorite pictures, resizing them, then transferring them to the frame or a memory card is kind of a pain. What’s worse is updating the content on the frame, especially if you happen to be the one managing the picture for a parent or some such. From the report:

Convincing indicators portend a slow but consistent shift away from isolated self-contained platforms to networked devices that interact in a client-server model. The client side of the equation represents the multiple devices consumers use to enjoy digital media (e.g., a TV, stereo, DVD player, or digital picture frame). The server in this architecture is represented by the platform on which the majority of a consumer’s personal digital media actually resides (i.e., on which it is stored and from which it can be served).

In the case of digital picture frames, I’m not sure consumers will end up relying on a home server per se, but probably more on web-based services like SmugMug, Flickr, Picassa, Facebook and so on. These are the places where people already load their images and the idea of being able to simply consume those same images on multiple devices, be it your computer desktop of a digital photo frame, is pretty appealing.

To make this work though, the digital frame must be able to connect to the web. There are of course many frames that do this already. We recently reviewed the D-Link DSM-210, which uses a third party service called FrameChannel to let you view images from your Facebook profile, amongst other things. We’re not crazy about FrameChannel, but there are several other services coming online, that are all trying to give you easier ways to have more dynamic content on digital picture frames.

While none of this is terribly new, it’s important to highlight the trend that is the inclusion of WiFi and Ethernet (and to a lesser extent Bluetooth) options in digital picture frames. As you evaluate purchasing criteria for a frame, selecting one that can connect to the Internet may be your best bet for practicality and longevity of the device. The additional flexibility in loading images to your frame, not to mention the additional content (weather, stocks, sports, etc) that is available, can easily justify the increase in cost. It’s also important to note that almost all of the online services associated with these frames are free, you simply need a network for the frames to connect to.

Related Articles:

Understanding Digital Picture Frames
Digital Picture Frame Buyer’s Guide