Though I have little data to back this up, I’ve often joked that manufacturers of digital photo frames have the world’s moms to thank for their booming market. The electronic gadgets seem to make great gifts for Mother’s Day or other occasions when a gift to Mom is called for. If Hewlett-Packard has its way, the appeal of digital photo frames will soon widen.
Worldwide shipments of all digital photo frames will reach 50 million units by 2013, from 25 million in 2009, researcher In-Stat predicts. But prices and margins on these devices are expected to fall sharply in the coming years as competition accelerates and the market becomes more saturated. So HP along with a host of other manufacturers, including Samsung, Pandigital, and Ceiva, are being forced to think of new ways to expand the market and get people of all ages to buy one.
More Than Just Photo Display
Enter HP’s new DreamScreen, introduced Sept. 17. A digital frame that goes far beyond letting users simply stream an array of photos from a home network, the DreamScreen is at the forefront of a new breed of multipurpose frames that also let users enjoy Internet radio, keep track of social media friends, and download pictures from photo-sharing sites such as Yahoo’s Flickr.
For two weeks, I put the $249 HP DreamScreen 100 through its paces, and quickly became impressed with the potential for these devices to morph from a pictorial chronicle into a more comprehensive compendium of a person’s social life. Forget all the talk about three screens — the PC, TV, and mobile phone. Make way for No. 4. And HP plans to introduce a larger, $299 13-in. model later this year.
For lack of a better term, HP calls the 10.2-in. glossy black DreamScreen a PC companion. It could even be marketed…