Courting The YouTubers

TWICE: One of the big, really society-wide, trends now is the growth in social networking and user-generated content. Obviously this is thanks in part to digital capture devices. Has this phenomenon affected the way you're developing new products? Are you cognizant of this user base and trying to appeal to them?

Maciag: I think anything that creates excitement around digital imaging is a positive for all of us. That's really how we view sites like My Space and You Tube, as opportunities for consumers to use all of the creative features [on a camera].

Lee: We're very active in this area with Flickr. Our Picture Town campaign ties into social networking

TWICE: Does it impact your product development strategies?

Pepple: We addressed this particularly type of market by adding a blog mode to a camera because we recognized that these sites are going to play an important part in the future [of this category]. But it's also important not to put all your eggs in one basket with this type of market — they're always looking for the next best thing.

They have much less brand loyalty. We need to be careful about how we court them because it could be a fad for one minute, and then it moves on before the camera gets to the market. So we watch these things very closely and we do look for opportunities where possible.

Rubin: Maybe social networking sites will end the megapixel war because that's where you're likely to see more push back from consumers wondering why it's taking half an hour to get the 12-megapixel shot to their blogs.