Cloud photo service from RealNetworks
People are taking more photographs and videos
than ever before, thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets
with increasingly-powerful cameras. But the question of how best to
deal with this constant stream of digital media remains unanswered.
While internet storage services like Apple’s iCloud provide an online repository for photos, and social networks like Instagram
allow people to share them with friends, both lack the tools to search
through photos and organise them in a coherent way over time.
Now, two technology companies are battling it out to become the king of
photo management. This month, the internet search giant Google launched Photos, a free app that lets users organise photos by people, place or date and share them with friends. Weeks earlier, RealNetworks unveiled
“freemium” app RealTimes, which makes multimedia montages from users’ photos and videos.
“freemium” app RealTimes, which makes multimedia montages from users’ photos and videos.
Above: RealTimes, the photo management app from RealNetworks
RealNetworks, which started life 20 years ago and is most famous for
the iconic video streaming program RealPlayer, knows it is at a
disadvantage. Google owns Android, a mobile operating system with an
80pc share of the global smartphone market, making Photos the natural
choice for users.
Google has done two ‘Googley’ things that are different from what we try to do. One is they’re a search company, so they’ve done a really smart job of taking their image search and applying it to personal content, but there are some really tricky privacy issues around how they’re doing that. Then the other thing they did was they said: ‘As long as you don’t mind a little compression, we’ll make this thing available for free.’ We think there are people who don’t want somebody data-mining their pictures and will pay for that. Even though Google says they’re not doing anything with these pictures, they’re not a charity.”
Above: RealTimes does head-to-head with Google Photos
RealNetworks’ freemium model – which offers a free version of a service that encourages users to pay for extra features – is tried and tested. When the company first introduced RealPlayer in 1995, it offered a free "basic" version of the app as well as a paid "plus" version with additional features. It also charged broadcasters for use of the software.
With the new RealTimes app, subscribers can get a fixed amount of web storage for free, and the ability to automatically create photo and video montages of up to 30 seconds. They also have the option to increase their storage and create longer montages for a monthly fee.
RealNetworks’ move into photo management may seem surprising, given the company’s history. Mr Glaser is known as the inventor of online media streaming, having delivered the first real-time streaming internet broadcast, with what was then known as RealAudio Player, in 1995.
Above: RealPlayer, previously known as RealAudio Player, launched in 1995
The first version of RealAudio Player only streamed audio, but video was soon added. The company went from strength to strength, and by the end of the nineties, RealPlayer had become one of the foremost online media players in the world, alongside Microsoft’s Windows Media Player.
At the same time, Microsoft, which had previously supported RealPlayer, started to see RealNetworks as a threat, and used its operating system monopoly to push PC users towards Windows Media Player. RealNetworks filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, and was awarded a $460m settlement, but the damage was already done.
The rise of YouTube effectively killed off standalone video players like RealPlayer in the second half of the noughties and, later, TV streaming services like Netflix and Hulu (a partnership of the major US broadcasters) swooped in.
Above: YouTube killed off standalone video players
Having lost its head start in media streaming, RealNetworks decided to diversify. It acquired San Francisco-based startup Listen.com, which operated Rhapsody, the first on-demand music subscription service to offer unlimited access to a large library of digital music for a flat monthly fee.
Rhapsody, which operates as Napster in Europe, is now the second biggest music subscription service in the US after Spotify, with about 2.5m subscribers. RealNetworks no longer owns Rhapsody, but is still a major shareholder.
That too now faces the prospect of being bulldozed by a new entrant to the market, with the launch of Apple Music next week.
Above: Rhapsody competes with Spotify in the US
The company was slow to reinvent itself for the mobile era, but sees photo management as a natural progression from media streaming, because it is another way for people to experience and see the world, and share their experiences with others.
Google has done two ‘Googley’ things that are different from what we try to do. One is they’re a search company, so they’ve done a really smart job of taking their image search and applying it to personal content, but there are some really tricky privacy issues around how they’re doing that. Then the other thing they did was they said: ‘As long as you don’t mind a little compression, we’ll make this thing available for free.’ We think there are people who don’t want somebody data-mining their pictures and will pay for that. Even though Google says they’re not doing anything with these pictures, they’re not a charity.”
Above: RealTimes does head-to-head with Google Photos
RealNetworks’ freemium model – which offers a free version of a service that encourages users to pay for extra features – is tried and tested. When the company first introduced RealPlayer in 1995, it offered a free "basic" version of the app as well as a paid "plus" version with additional features. It also charged broadcasters for use of the software.
With the new RealTimes app, subscribers can get a fixed amount of web storage for free, and the ability to automatically create photo and video montages of up to 30 seconds. They also have the option to increase their storage and create longer montages for a monthly fee.
RealNetworks’ move into photo management may seem surprising, given the company’s history. Mr Glaser is known as the inventor of online media streaming, having delivered the first real-time streaming internet broadcast, with what was then known as RealAudio Player, in 1995.
Above: RealPlayer, previously known as RealAudio Player, launched in 1995
The first version of RealAudio Player only streamed audio, but video was soon added. The company went from strength to strength, and by the end of the nineties, RealPlayer had become one of the foremost online media players in the world, alongside Microsoft’s Windows Media Player.
At the same time, Microsoft, which had previously supported RealPlayer, started to see RealNetworks as a threat, and used its operating system monopoly to push PC users towards Windows Media Player. RealNetworks filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, and was awarded a $460m settlement, but the damage was already done.
The rise of YouTube effectively killed off standalone video players like RealPlayer in the second half of the noughties and, later, TV streaming services like Netflix and Hulu (a partnership of the major US broadcasters) swooped in.
Above: YouTube killed off standalone video players
Having lost its head start in media streaming, RealNetworks decided to diversify. It acquired San Francisco-based startup Listen.com, which operated Rhapsody, the first on-demand music subscription service to offer unlimited access to a large library of digital music for a flat monthly fee.
Rhapsody, which operates as Napster in Europe, is now the second biggest music subscription service in the US after Spotify, with about 2.5m subscribers. RealNetworks no longer owns Rhapsody, but is still a major shareholder.
That too now faces the prospect of being bulldozed by a new entrant to the market, with the launch of Apple Music next week.
Above: Rhapsody competes with Spotify in the US
The company was slow to reinvent itself for the mobile era, but sees photo management as a natural progression from media streaming, because it is another way for people to experience and see the world, and share their experiences with others.
Comments
Post a Comment