Together with the introduction of the new slim 30GB and 60GB iPod Photo, Apple also mentioned the emergence of an iPod Camera Connector:
“The new iPod Camera Connector is an optional accessory that enables customers to connect their digital camera to iPod photo and import their photos into the iPod. By simply connecting the iPod Camera Connector and a digital camera*, customers can easily transfer digital images to their iPod photo, providing tremendous storage space so they can take more pictures. Imported photos are immediately viewable on iPod photo’s crisp color screen, and can also be brought back to iPhoto® on the Mac or various photo applications on the PC. The iPod Camera Connector is expected to be available in late March for [USD]$29.”
Having a portable digital music device that doubles up as a storage media is another result of the current age of convergent devices but Apple has so far, fallen short of presenting a totally convincing product with the iPod Photo. Despite its ability to contain and view photos, the iPod Photo has yet to see better days. Its obvious that there is a latent market of travellers who are always on the go, snapping away with their digital cameras, searching for a solution to store their photos whilst carrying less equipment on the go.
However, the main setback that’s holding back this latent market from buying out iPod Photos has been the unavailability of a practical interface for photo uploads directly into the iPod Photo. If Apple manages to come up with a brilliant universal solution that will suit most commercially available digital cameras in the market, you can expect an increase in iPod Photo sales.
Currently, the only means of importing photos into your iPod Photo on the go remains the solutions offered by Belkin.
As helpful as these devices are, they both require batteries to sustain the data transfer and have been labelled slow, cumbersome and to some consumers, nothing but expensive add-ons.
For now, March 2005 will hopefully carry with it the hopes of a new dawn for the iPod Photo.
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