CEIVA view point FRAMED

While digital frames keep evolving, consumer understanding stays pretty much the same… and can be misunderstood. Only after owning and using a frame does a consumer understand what their frame does and doesn’t do. So if you are in the market for a digital frame, answering these two seemingly simple questions will spare you disappointment later.

QUESTION 1: What do you want to SEE on your digital frame?

Now this might seem like a stupid question, but actually there are three content types to choose from when it comes to what a frame can possibly show. Of course there are frames dedicated solely to photo content. Then, while it is not highly desirable, there are some frames that can show short video content.  Finally, there are also frames that can accept information feeds that display instructional, marketing and/or news related content. Since not all frames show all content types, knowing what you want your frame to show will help guide and direct your purchasing decision. This leads us to the second question…

QUESTION 2: How will you connect to load & manage frame content?

Typically consumers don’t give this question much thought. Up until now they were typically sold on “stand-alone frames” (aka card reader frames) that offered what seemed to be a straightforward solution. Connecting to a frame to load it with photo content just by popping a card out of a camera and into the frame seemed simple enough. But over time, consumers with stand-alone frames began to understand that while it may have been simple to load the first time, the loading process becomes tedious as more pictures are taken. Plus, if the content requires any editing, doing so within a frame is an awkward undertaking, if it is even offered as a feature in the first place.

While connectivity to the frame controls content delivery, it does not always control what also is important to customers: content management. What shows, when it shows and how long it shows on the digital frame is content management. To make loading, managing and editing pictures simpler, frame manufactures are beginning to have their frames connect to a PC via WiFi or Bluetooth. Much like sending a document to a node printer connected on a network, content files stored on the PC can be to  “Node Frames” for display. Any editing would take place on the PC before sending.

Some Node Frames can also use the PC as a gateway middleman to a variety of Internet sites for content housed on the site. However, setting up and managing multiple connections from multiple sites to the middleman PC and then back into the Node Frame can be exasperating, tedious and difficult for most. Beware, this middleman PC approach to content delivery and management is currently being “sold” a simple Internet frame solution… but, in reality it can be a whole new approach to frame frustration.

Finally, there are true “Internet Frames” that are designed to connect directly to one site on the Internet via a wireless connection or through a traditional land line.  Unlike the Node Frame, that again depends the PC as content and management middleman, the true Internet Frame connects to one Internet site as the gateway access point to all desired frame content and content management. The Internet site is designed as a one stop content and management solution for the frame.  The site offers and manages all the functions related to picture hosting, content delivery, a variety of information feeds and even photo editing. Conflicts for access to and display time on the frame are eliminated because all content types are managed at one site.

Knowing a little more beyond what is being marketed and sold by most frame manufacturers will ultimately serve the consumer looking to buy a digital photo frame. Asking and answering two simple questions regarding what types of content they want to show and how they want to connect to load and then manage that content  on the digital frame will ultimately save them time, money and frustration… guaranteed.

So until the next post… that’s what CeivaJoe knows!

COMMENT