May 19th, 2000

[9:00 AM] Polaroid May Be Bringing Latest Web Product To The Mac
by Kyle D'Addario

Polaroid has recently announced a new I-Zone product, the I-Zone Webster. Following the successful I-Zone Instant Pocket Camera, the I-Zone Webster will allow users to instantly digitize images for download into their PC. At this time, however, PC means "Windows." The news is not all bad, however. One Observer, Pete Kline, sent an e-mail to Polaroid suggesting that Mac compatibility be included. According to Mr. Kline:

This is from a recent Polaroid press release:

Some of those new digital products will be targeted at the "Generation Internet" market comprising young, techno-savvy consumers who have made the Polaroid I-Zone Instant Pocket Camera the best-selling camera in America. For example, the Polaroid I-Zone Webster, a handheld device that instantly digitizes I-Zone pictures directly into a PC, will be launched later this year.

Based on that, I sent the following e-mail to Skip Colcord at Polaroid:

    Mr. Colcord.

    Read with interest the story of your stockholders meeting and Polaroid's future in digital imaging. To that end I would humbly suggest that the upcoming iZone Webster device have drivers available for Mac computers. I'm sure you are aware that iMac is the largest selling single computer model in the US and it has lots of iZone generation kids as owners.

    Good luck.

    Peter Kline

I received the following response from Mr. Colcord:

    Thanks for your suggestion. We're working on it.

    Skip Colcord

While this does not specifically indicate that the product is actually in the works, it can be taken as potentially positive news from Polaroid. We'd like to offer a Mac Observer pat on the back to Mr. Kline for evangelizing the Mac.

The Mac Observer Spin: Consumer products of this nature are only going to get more popular. In fact, it is our opinion that manipulating images is one of the top reasons for many consumers to buy computers. We can hope that Polaroid will in fact bring this product to the Mac for that reason.

Polaroid