In the last three years digital picture frames have evolved from a novelty (and a place to dump display panels rejected by Japanese makers of Pachinko machines) to a major new application for flat-panel displays. According to IDC, worldwide unit sales will grow from 2.8M in 2006 to 42M in 2011. Interconnection Consulting reports that just in the Europe Top 6 (Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands), unit sales in 2006 were 1.5M, reached 2.9M in 2007, and will grow to 5.7M in 2008 and 19.2M in 2011. That’s a CAGR of 62% for the period 2006-2011 in the market comprising Europe’s top 6 economies.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

This vibrant global activity could be seen in many local stores over the recent holiday season, and it was certainly seen at CES, where a dizzying number of vendors were selling ever more varied picture-frame product lines. rends this year were a move to larger sizes on the top end, wireless connectivity, and frames that provided multiple functions.

An example of a big frame is Westinghouse Digital’s DPF-1411, which is 14.1 inches on the diagonal, has a pixel format of 1280×800, has 128MB of internal memory and accepts most memory card formats. The frame is wall-mountable and features what the company calls MosaicView, which allows a mosaic of photos to be shown at one time, and the photos can be a mixture of portrait and landscape modes.

On the small end was a keychain photo viewer from Digital Foci with a 1.5-inch, 128×128 OLED display, which will supplement a similar existing model with an LCD. I was more impressed with the company’s 2.8-inch OLED product with 320×240 pixels and 10,000:1 contrast ratio at an MSRP of $99.95 - but no key chain.

In addition, Norcent’s XIAS division was showing frames with an interesting modern design at competitive prices.

Picture frames have also become a major product category for Kodak, and part of its "yes-we-have-finally-restructured-ourselves-into-a-real-digital-company" strategy. At CES, Kodak’s Pierre Schaeffer told a group of Kodak’s institutional investors that up until November, Kodak’s 2007 U.S. photo frame revenues accounted for 16% of the market, making Kodak Number 1 in terms of value share.

In a category-busting demonstration of enthusiasm, Hyundai was showing a variety of products at CES on which painstakingly rendered examples of fine art were displayed on framed large-format LCDs. Classic works of art, such as the Mona Lisa and Japanese Sumi-e renderings, started off looking just as you’d expect, but after a while aspects of the painting would slowly begin to move. Top of the line was an 8-panel Shoji screen with a 42-inch LCD on each panel showing an Asian ink painting in classic style. Price? $100,000. The MSRPs for Kodak’s frames, on the other hand, ranged from $69.95 to $249.95, which is typical for the category.

Reply to the author