Apple puts focus on images
Growth in the market for digital still cameras costing less than US$1,000 is expected to increase by nearly 50 per cent over the next three years, and Apple aims to expand its share with the introduction of the QuickTake 200.
Apple's QuickTake 150 was introduced a few years ago when the number of digital still cameras available for small-business and home users was tiny. Apple has replaced this practical but eclectic model with the more conventional-looking QuickTake 200.
The model will again be targeted at hobbyists and small businesses. The 200's image sensor will produce a 640X480 pixel image, as does the 150, but with improved colour and a reduction in image artifacts. Artifacts are the coloured pixels that often appear in digital still images. The QuickTake 150 was prone to artifact problems, with red or yellow pixels often appearing in what should have been a white image highlight.
The 200 will also do away with the non-standard file format that the 150 used.
The QuickTake 200 will store 20 high-quality images in JPEG format, with the capacity increased to 30 images when the image quality is set at 'standard'.
It will follow other industry trends, including the use of a rear LCD panel rather than a viewfinder as well as the use of the new SmartMedia storage cards. These cards are no bigger than a large postage stamp and almost as thin. The 200 stores its 20 images on one 2MB card.
Before the introduction of SmartMedia, digital still cameras with removable memory cards used much larger PCMCIA memory cards. At about US$48 each, the SmartMedia cards are cheaper than a PCMCIA card of the same capacity.
One other feature computer users will appreciate is the video out-plugs on the QuickTake 200, which provide NTSC video output at 30 frames per second. These RCA plugs allow the 200 to be connected to a computer and used as a motion camera for video conferencing.
Apple will also introduce another QuickTime add-on called QuickTime IC. This is a modular image capture extension that provides all the software necessary for moving images from any image-capturing device, such as a scanner or camera, into your computer.
IC will provide a standard interface and basic image editing tools. The device manufacturer will only have to provide a small plug-in software component that allows the device to interface with the QuickTime IC extension.
The idea is to lighten the software writing burden that hardware manufactures face when bringing their products to market.
A camera or scanner manufacturer must write a fairly complex program to allow users to scan or download an image. QuickTime will lighten this burden by providing a generic piece of software that only requires device manufactures to write a small program that describes their device to QuickTime IC.
The QuickTake 200 will be available on March 1 in the US and by late April in Asia. Apple will be selling the units for just under US$600. QuickTime IC will be included at no extra charge.
