Press Release: Viewpoint Photo Management for digital camera user
Viewpoint Corp. announced that as of 8:00 pm EST
today the company is beginning official distribution of its Viewpoint Toolbar
Version 3.0 with Viewpoint Photos. This achievement marks the first time PC
users have a browser-based photo management application that's easy to use and
provides them with one-click, immediate access to their photos whether they're
online or offline. With an estimated 62 million digital camera users currently
in the US (comScore Media Metrix, April 2005) and one-quarter of all Internet
users - 43 million consumers - visiting Photo-related Web sites, Viewpoint
Photos is being introduced at a time when demand for photo management
applications is exploding.
Digital camera penetration
InfoTrends estimates US consumer digital
camera penetration will reach 55% with around 25 million shipments in 2005,
growing to 81% penetration in 2010. Viewpoint expects the application will
capitalize on pent-up consumer demand for simple yet flexible digital image
management. Viewpoint Photos is the first photo management product for the PC
for which the application was designed to perfectly match its online service,
making both components fully integrated and allowing the online and offline
functionality to communicate seamlessly.
Simpler way to manage the photos
"Viewpoint Photos was built for the tens of
millions of digital camera users who have been pining for a simpler way to
manage their photos," said Jay Amato, Viewpoint's chief executive officer. "Our
free product is an incredibly easy-to-use application with features specifically
designed to give consumers full control of their photos. It offers consumers
instant access to all their digital photos whether they're connected to the
Internet or not and it doesn't require them to go through the process of
uploading all their photos to an online service. Instead, consumers only upload
the photos they want to share or print online while keeping all their pictures
right where they want them - on their computers. There they can organize them
into albums, edit, then share and print their pictures, how and when they want."
Viewpoint Photos - Features
Some of the features of Viewpoint Photos
include:
• Convenient Photo Viewing from
within Internet Explorer, whether online or offline
• Easy Importing from within PC folders
and subfolders
• Fast and Efficient
Downloading from digital cameras
•
Virtual Albuming for organizing and sharing pictures
• Placing pictures across multiple
albums - without increasing hard disk use
• Selective Uploading for sharing and
printing online
• Fast Album Updating
for synching albums on the computer with albums online
• Flexible Printing Options so users can
print at home or through Viewpoint's printing service
• Specialty Printing offering users
professional service to print specialty goods
• Flexible Sharing Options to share the
photos via email or through the online community
• Advanced Video Help with the first
ever real-life Help Assistant within a consumer application.
Viewpoint Toolbar Version 3.0
Viewpoint Photos is a feature of the Viewpoint
Toolbar Version 3.0, the latest free offering from the Company's Consumer
Products division that, since February 2004, has introduced Viewpoint Toolbar
Versions 1.0 and 2.0. To date, the Viewpoint Toolbar has been installed on
nearly 16 million PCs.
Viewpoint Toolbar
Version 3.0 - Viewpoint Photos
Viewpoint
Photos resides within the Viewpoint Toolbar 3.0, which also allows consumers to
conduct online searches, and is always visible within the Internet Explorer
browser. The always-on nature of the Web browser makes the Toolbar the perfect
vehicle for photo management. This benefit ensures users have one-click access
to their pictures which instantly appear, along with any albums and notes
they've created, when they click on the Toolbar's 'Photos' button. Viewpoint
engineers designed this user interface to be intuitive, allowing even
inexperienced users to successfully manage, share and print pictures with
minimal instruction. Accordingly, importing photos from folders and subfolders,
downloading from digital cameras and uploading to online albums have been
streamlined to make the operations fast and easy, even for novice digital
consumers.
Organize your images in one
central place
"We listened for more than a
year to what consumers were saying about their digital photo experiences," said
Daniela Botterbusch, Viewpoint general manager of consumer products. "And the
overriding comments have been that they are looking for an application that is
easy-to-use and one that allows them to organize their images in one central
place. So we set out to design a product that would take the frustration out of
photo management on the PC, much like iPhotos did for Apple users. So,
incorporating this feedback and comments from our beta users, we made sure to
focus on the features that users seem to care about most - quick picture import,
a simple user interface, quick access to photos, virtual album management - that
lets users place the same photo in more than one album without taking up
additional disk space - and easy upload to online web pages for printing and
sharing. Viewpoint Photos achieves all of this and much more."
Viewpoint Photos now available
Viewpoint Photos is available from the
Viewpoint website as of 8:00 pm EST on June 29th and will be distributed via the
Viewpoint Distribution Network of an estimated 120 million PCs in the US. The
Company expects the Photo feature will result in increased revenues from
professional printing services over time. Additionally, Viewpoint believes the
Photo feature will boost the 'stickiness' of its newly enhanced graphical
Toolbar and search offering, as consumers come to rely on the application to
manage their photos. Consumers using Viewpoint Photos to share pictures should
also create a new viral distribution opportunity that will further enhance usage
of the search toolbar.
Online photo
sharing and search
"We have an apparent
advantage over other toolbar and search products currently available to
consumers," said Jay Amato. "Adding this useful service to our toolbar now gives
consumers one place to do two of the most popular activities online: photo
sharing and search. We are very excited by this expansion of our consumer
products business and we have expectations of strong performance as a result."
About Viewpoint
The Viewpoint Platform is the technology
behind some of the most innovative, visual experiences on the Web and on the
desktop with leading clients such as America Online, General Electric, Hewlett
Packard, IBM, Lexus, Microsoft, Samsung, Scion, Sony and Toyota. The Unicast
Online Advertising Suite - the Company's next-generation ad deployment and
management system - and the Viewpoint Toolbar - the Vision for the Future of
Search - are the latest breakthrough technologies using the full power of the
Viewpoint Platform.
Posted: Fri - July 8, 2005 at 09:40 AM