We all know that Apple designs its products for usability and user experience, not necessarily for the most cutting-edge features. That is certainly true for photo and video on the iPhone.
For photo, the desired user experience is to be able to snap a quick picture, maybe do some minor tweaks, then upload the photo and move on with your life. Actually, our own poll confirms this, with almost two thirds of our users doing their edits on the iPhone before posting their images.
For video, the desired user experience is probably more limited by the carrier and the processing capabilities of the iPhone. While the current experience is shoot – trim – upload, I’m sure transitions will be added over time as long as the experience remains speedy and easy to use. That is also the reason, why we do not get 720p video on the iPhone – apart from carriers not liking much bigger uploads, the rendering time for 720p might just not be speedy enough to pass the user experience bar that Apple sets.
Server-side video processing: Animate, create, add effects, render, scale
If you could capture 720p video on your iPhone (maybe 1080p in an iPhone 5G at a later time), Apple could still only allow to process and upload the low-res version on your iPhone. But you could also specify transitions and add effects on your iPhone, with all of this info being written into a separate “directions” file (probably an XML file). Once connected to Wi-Fi, you could then upload the hi-res movie plus “directions” to a server (Apple could offer this as a service and so could 3rd parties such as Muvee, which already has a lot of the required technology). There, your “directions” are processed, the video is edited automatically and then rendered. You could even scale it down (give me a 720p in addition to the 1080p that was captured initially). Maybe even up-res it from 720p to 1080p. Once done, I then download the movie or movies to my Mac or PC or to my living-room computer to be played on a flat screen TV.
Would this be a viable service? I think so. Would I pay for it? Yes, I would. So this could be a viable business opportunity for Apple or third parties when it comes to server-side video processing. And it would not have to be limited to just iPhone video – it could include video from all kinds of sources (phones, camcorders, digicams, DSLRs).
Server-side photo processing: Stitch, HDR, add effects, scale and animate
A similar opportunity exists in the photo space. Many cameras today allow you to shoot RAW and JPG at the same time, so the technology exists. Similar to video processing, you could allow RAW uploads only when connected to Wi-Fi, together with my “directions” which are stored in an XML file. A company like onOne could offer a service, where they could stitch panoramas, combine images into HDR and use their Genuine Fractals product (see our review) to automatically up-scale my images. They could create animated slideshows. They could even create movies of photographs similar to what you can do in iMovie. Again, all this could be done on the server side without me interacting with the process – just using a “directions” file to tell the server what to do. The photos could come from all kinds of cameras. And I would be willing to pay for it.
A lot of the server-side processing technology exists today. Research has shown that 4 out of 10 people in their 40’s and 50’s (who have money, but no time, which means they are a very valuable target audience) do not like the existing social media sharing options and are willing to pay between $72 and $90 per year for a better experience. So the opportunity exists and is real. When will we see the first server-side processing of video and photos from the iPhone and other cameras? I hope soon!
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