Kodak brings social photo app to Android
The photo company debuts an Android version of an app that lets users create temporary social networks among party-goers to share pictures. — Kodak has launched an Android version of a mobile app that lets users create ad hoc social networks to share their photos.
Context & Ripple Effects
The launch lands six weeks after Kodak's confirmed January 19 Chapter 11 filing, so an Android photo app is best read as part of the company's attempt to reposition around consumer software while its traditional business is restructured. It also follows the pattern set when Hipstamatic opened its communal photo albums in December 2011 — event-scoped sharing among small, self-forming groups rather than broadcast feeds.
First-order effects
- Kodak gains access to the Android installed base — the platform that per Gartner passed 50 percent of Q3 2011 smartphone sales and overtook Apple in the UK by February 2012 — for an app whose temporary-network model needs maximum device reach to work at parties.
- Users get ad hoc photo sharing that requires no pre-existing social graph: guests form a network on the spot, which lowers the friction that keeps casual photographers off dedicated sharing apps.
Second-order effects
- iOS-centric photo app makers like Hipstamatic face pressure to treat Android as a co-launch platform rather than a port target, since Kodak's move signals that distressed incumbents will compete on Android turf where growth is cheapest.
- Android's documented malware problems — Juniper's 472 percent rise since July 2011 and Microsoft's free-phone offer in December — become a brand-risk consideration for any camera-heritage company staking consumer trust on the platform.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds through Kodak's restructuring, the durable value for imaging brands shifts from capture hardware to the social software wrapped around photos, with Chapter 11 acting as the forcing function for the pivot.
- Platform economics harden: with ComScore already flagging slowing US Android growth against a dominant installed base, app strategy consolidates around whichever OS owns the users, leaving second-tier platforms dependent on whatever ports they can attract.
The trend: Photo sharing is consolidating onto Android's dominant installed base, pushing even bankrupt camera-era brands to rebuild themselves as mobile software companies.