If you tally the recent press coverage from DEMO 07, the crowd favorites were Zink and Bling Software's launch with Barry Bonds. The former seems to me like the return of Polaroid technology but with much better features. Zink's printer doesn't need ink, has a tiny form factor and can even use bluetooth to connect with cameras, pdas and computers. At 25 cents per 2x3 inch print and about $99 per printer, the cost is attractive too. From consumer technology perspective, Zink undoubtedly stole the show. Bling Software got plenty of attention by enlisting Barry Bonds in their launch and with select applications that looked gorgeous and fast on various cell phones like RAZR - though it was from clear how easy it would be to develop new applications such as those that were being shown at the conference.
Though not as flashy, my favorite consumer internet plays were: Nexo, Attendio (I'm a seed investor in them), and Eyejot.
The first goes after the groups, bringing some fresh ideas to this segment. Their site impressed me through its rapid response time, variety of useful features like being able to easily include topic-related videos or photos from popular sites like Flickr and Youtube. The site was developed in just about a year, and addresses a large market with few new competitors.
Attendio is a social events company that automatically connects people to the local events based on their interests and through so-called "recommenders". The company uses the open standard iCal format to sync with popular calendars like Google Calendar and managed to be included in the Windows Vista launch as a highlighted application.
Eyejot is all about simplicity: point your camera, click to record, click to send - Videomail. That's it. You don't even need their site to view the videomail, the recipient gets an email, clicks on an icon and voila, the videomail launches itself seemlessly (Flash 9 is needed to view the video). It has huge potential to be viral - though they do depend on the availability of a camera attached to the computer of the sender.
Thanks for letting me know about Eyejot. It was around my mothers birthday when you did and all my kids and I send her individual eyejots and she was totally moved.
Simple bu effective.
Posted by: Baris Karadogan | February 13, 2007 at 08:55 AM