> "Haven't you been to a party where everybody took pics and you couldn't wait till they uploaded the pics on FB or something to see what they shot?"
yes, but I'm at the party for the party - I have no intention of spending the entire party staring into my smartphone and living vicariously through the pictures of the lives of people ten feet away from me.
Just because you have access to the pictures does not mean you must consume/view them immediately. If many folks are taking pics, I might want to glance every once in a while at what might be going up on FB tomorrow (people, especially women, are very socially conscious, and FB has become the de facto personal brand management tool).
Or if I know someone is closer to the action. Or someone took a picture of me and my wife, or a bunch of people took a bunch of pictures in a group shot. At the game someone might have better seats, at school teenagers could go to town with this.
I think they had a great idea that helped them get $141 million from some of the biggest names in the VC world, but bungled execution badly.
Wedding photos are still admired after the fact. There still isn't a use case for "hmm, I wonder what images people are taking within a 100' radius of me!".
There is a use case for, "I wonder what images were taken within 100' of me!"
If the app is on, and tracking photos that were taken, then can resolve it after the fact (and get those photos), I think a lot of people would be interested.
Wouldn't that be in Facebook's territory? i.e., "Hey Facebook, I took these pictures at Bob's wedding. Based on the geotag, can you show me other pictures from nearby at the same time?"
It seems convoluted (not to mention a gigantic drag on your battery life) to do so on each and every device in real-time.
Your phone knows where you were, when. And says, "Here is where I was, what pictures were taken around me?" I want this information regardless of whether I was personally taking pictures.
Keeping a history of where you are can be done without much drain on your battery life. It can just log a location every few minutes.
Is location really the key piece of data differentiating "pictures from Bob's wedding" from "the universe of pictures", though? I would think some concept of tagging that went beyond mere location would be far more useful.
80% of the time (walking down the street, sitting in my office, etc.), I don't care about pictures that were taken around me. For the 1% of the time that I DO care, I can probably easily name the thing that I want to see pictures of. Location is perhaps a handy filter for "tags that might be important to me", but it's hardly the sole determiner, or even a major factor, in whether any given picture will be one that's interesting to me.
And what is the chance that random stranger is using Color? 0.000001%. So why don't you just walk over there and ask him to send you a copy? Social networking at its finest, in real time, at a conference.
But typically those are taken with SLRs, which still take better pictures than phones or point & shoots, especially in low light. Plus they are still the only way (with a big lens) to get the shallow depth of field that people like.
I have a phone camera and a fairly nice, if not exactly pro, DSLR. I'd never consider taking anything remotely important on the phone; the quality difference is enormous.
No I've never felt like that at a party. What's the point of being at the party if you're going to spend half the time with your smart phone in front of your face looking at pictures someone took 10ft away? It just seems completely lame and pointless.
To be honest though, it seems that young people are doing just that.
(I'm 31 so an old geezer and I don't know wtf these crazy kids nowadays all do exactly, it's just that when I walk back from my office to home through the bar area in my city, I see many people frolicking about with their phones, taking pictures and doing things with it that suggest it's more than just sms'ing. Also I sometimes see small groups of people standing together, each of them doing things on their phones. It's surreal to me, but if that's how they use their phones...)
It might be slightly useful but I can't see myself ever paying for the opportunity to see the photos a few hours before they'd appear on FB. So it might be slightly useful to some people, but that's hardly a business model.
> Haven't you been to a party where everybody took pics and you couldn't wait till they uploaded the pics on FB or something to see what they shot?
During the party? No. Never. And I go to a fair share of events and weddings.
Normally at parties, we eat, talk, have fun, take pictures for later, take videos, dance, dance some more, drink, drink some more, run after the kids, eat, dance, and talk.
I'm not staring at my phone hoping that someone sitting at the other table across from me or across the room is going to share a picture of an even I just saw from another angle.
Now, let's say we are at an event where I'm not with people I know. Rather, I'm with a few friends or family, and we are doing things. Again, we'll be doing things. Taking pictures, videos, and doing things. Having fun. I'm probably not staring at my phone hoping someone uploads something at the even I'm currently attending. To show me something I could have seen if I wasn't staring at my phone.
I could meet this person. They obviously have the same interest as me: the event, where many other people are. The only other similar interest we share is that we both are using the same mobile app. Oh, and we also prefer looking at our phone rather than hang with our friends.
Or we are there alone trying to make friends. So yeah, I think I found the arget market that would get the most use out of it.
People without friends interested in going to events, not actually participating in them, but taking pictures in between staring at their mobile phone waiting for someone else to take a picture as well. And maybe meeting up. And talking about the app.
There's a certain amount of novelty in seeing what pictures other people took who were once standing where you were. Imagine seeing what your neighbourhood looked like 50 years ago.
Now, whether or not Color is the best place for that to happen, I don't know.
Honestly, I'm not a very photo oriented person, and I despise having my picture taken (I'm always blinking, or have one eye half open or am making a stupid face, or something right when the shutter clicks)... so it's not something that I personally would get much out of.
That said, I think you're right... for some people it does have value. Whether or not it has enough value, and an accompanying business model, to build a successful business, is TBD.
What are you going to do? Stand up at the mic and say "They're a wonderful couple aren't they? Congratulations. Now, could you all please start up the Color photo sharing app on your smartphone, or download it from the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace if you don't already have it? I'd like to see the pictures you are taking RIGHT NOW. Thanks."
Haven't you been to a party where everybody took pics and you couldn't wait till they uploaded the pics on FB or something to see what they shot?