Holy Grail of Mobile Picture Camera Phones====Ontela
Hunt Ventures, Oak Investment Partners and Voyager Capital Back Mobile Imaging Software for Wireless Carriers. “Consumers can’t figure out how to get images off their camera phones and into the digital photography ecosystem. We’ve cracked the nut with a solution that’s incredibly easy to use, and packaged it into a service that carriers and imaging companies can provide to their customers,” said Dan Shapiro, CEO of Ontela.
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) November 10, 2006 — Ontela (www.ontela.com), an innovator in mobile imaging technologies headquartered in Seattle, today announces that it has secured funding from Hunt Ventures, Oak Investment Partners and Voyager Capital. This funding will support the company’s efforts as it moves from closed service trials to market deployment of its PicDeck™ mobile imaging platform in 2007.
Modern camera phones are breaking the two, three and even 10 megapixel barrier, but while studies show that consumers are taking hundreds of photos each year, 98% never leave the handset. Ontela solves this problem for wireless carriers and imaging services alike with technology that automatically, reliably, and securely transfers photos from consumers’ camera phones to their PCs and favorite online image services.
“Consumers can’t figure out how to get images off their camera phones and into the digital photography ecosystem. We’ve cracked the nut with a solution that’s incredibly easy to use, and packaged it into a service that carriers and imaging companies can provide to their customers,” said Dan Shapiro, CEO of Ontela. “Our investors have been watching the problem fester for years and understood our solution immediately. By fixing this broken link in the value chain, Ontela unlocks revenues for carriers and mobile imaging companies alike.”
Ontela’s patent-pending installer provisions new users in less than 60 seconds, and it requires no actions on the part of the user once set up – pictures are automatically moved to the user’s PC or favorite web-based photo gallery. Ontela chairman and wireless veteran Tom Huseby explains, “In the past four years, a lot of companies seeking funding have taken my picture with a camera phone. Every one is followed by a mad flurry of keypad tapping, followed by a blurry picture of me in some photo service I’ve never heard of. Dan took out a camera phone, hit the shutter button, and set it on the table. The picture showed up on Flickr® and in the ‘My Pictures’ folder of the computer a minute later. I was hooked.”
Ontela’s platform is currently in closed trials and supports many popular BREW, J2ME, Symbian®, and Windows Mobile camera phones such Motorola’s RAZR® and Sony Ericsson’s Walkman® phones. PC connectivity is supported on Windows 2000® or later.