Jefferson Graham
USA Today
Software allows simple uploading to Google Video and Sony’s Grouper video-sharing services.
A company that makes pint-size video cameras is introducing an update aimed at the online video-sharing craze.
Now, it’s mostly geeks and tech-savvy youngsters who know how to get homemade videos onto YouTube and other popular video sites, says Pure Digital Technologies CEO Jonathan Kaplan.
Pure Digital today announces a simpler solution: a camcorder that plugs into PCs and has built-in software to transfer and process the video with one click.
It’s a new edition of a camcorder Pure Digital first began selling in May. Two units — $129 for one that holds 30 minutes of video clips and $169 for a 60-minute version — are now being shipped to stores. They feature one-click uploads to Google Video and Sony’s Grouper video-sharing service.
“Anything you can do to give people powerful technology and simple ways to use it will increase the attractiveness of online video,” says Hunter Walk, a Google product manager.
Allen Weiner, an analyst with market tracker Gartner, calls the Pure Digital innovation “simple, but also revolutionary. There are millions of people who look at a site like YouTube and want to put their videos up, but have no idea how to do it.” Instead of tangling with video-transfer cables and editing software, “This puts everything directly into the camera itself,” he says.
Pure Digital devised the video unit in response to flagging sales of traditional camcorders. The camera — also sold by RCA under a licensing arrangement — was originally offered at Target, but now expands to what Pure Digital says is 10,000 locations, including retailers Costco, Long’s Drugs and Best Buy.
Kaplan says Pure Digital will sell 250,000 camcorders this year, or about 9% of all camcorders sold (around 3 million). He predicts sales will top 1 million next year.
Google last week agreed to buy YouTube for $1.6 billion. Try telling its large audience of videophiles that it’s hard to upload clips.
But Kaplan says most YouTube footage is provided by students using stationary webcams in bedrooms or dorm rooms. “These clips aren’t filmed around the neighborhood, or at special events,” he says. “We’re offering portability.”
Weiner says that with Google’s acquisition of YouTube, Pure Digital is in a good position to add an “Upload to YouTube” button in future releases.
