Yesterday in New York Toshiba formally announced its entry into the digital picture frame market.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The TV monitor manufacturer, which has panels, designers, and brand recognition, has had digital photo frames in other markets outside the U.S.
Toshiba is calling their spin on digital frames a “Digital Media Frame” to stress the fact that they can do more than just show pictures once connected with Wi-Fi to the Internet.
“You can get digital photo frames today for $20 to $30, but this is more than that. We call them digital media frames because we are positioning them as devices to do much more than just show photos. These are more lifestyle devices that give you the news and weather and a range of other personalized content options,” said Louis Masses, Toshiba DAV group product planning director.
The frames will be released in an 8 and 10 inch version. Initial models offer a high-gloss floating-glass look in the 8-inch screen sizes, while the 10-inch model is looks similar to the company’s Deep Lagoon 2009 LCD TV design style.
The 8-inch Digital Media Frame comes with either black or white frame bezels. The white 8-inch DMF82XWU and the black 8-inch DMF82XKU will each carry $180 suggested retails. The 10-inch model will be offered only in a translucent black. The 10-inch DMF102XKU will have a suggested retail of $230. Both displays are said to be high-res, built-in speakers, and support for WMA and MP3 as well as Jpeg, TIFF and BMP.
CEIVA welcomes Toshiba to the growing list of manufacturers.
