Picture this: you’ve just snapped some great pictures on your smartphone and want to share them instantly with friends, colleagues, customers, or with your social networks on Twitter and/or Facebook. What’s the fastest and easiest way to do this? Try Burstn them.
Toronto-based Burstn has launched an app that allows iPhone users (and hopefully soon, at least for my sake, BlackBerry and Android users), the ability to share photos in real time without any hassles around uploading or posting them to a website.
I had a chance to chat with Josh Davey and Dave Senior from Burstn recently. Here’s a sneak peak into our chat:
Q: How do you differentiate Burstn?
A: Burstn allows users to share pictures they take on their smartphones in real time. Users can download the app for free on iTunes. Once a picture is taken, it is sent to Burstn.com where they can be shared immediately with friends on Facebook, Twitter, on Burstn.com’s live photo feed, or they can just be stored by turning the sharing function off. For those without a smartphone, users can also post pictures directly to the Burstn.com site and link to their social networks from there.
Q: How is the app being used?
A:The application stands to offer value to media companies, event planners and brands that are looking for ways to engage their users and communicate in real time. For example, with Burstn, one event planner used the app to take photos of the event in real time, and post them into a live photo stream that was projected on a wall to show live footage as the event was happening. Attendees were encouraged to take their own pictures as well at the event and share them to the designated photo stream, providing a means for engagement and interaction as the event was happening.
Q: What are your plans for the solution moving forward?
A: We will continue to scale the solution to support BlackBerry and Android very soon, and are looking to ramp up adoption and usage right now through the iPhone app. Mainly consumers are using the solution now, but we are looking to get more companies engaged and trying out the solution, including media (newspapers, online news) that want to allow their readers to contribute photos related to news stories in real time, and digital camera vendors that could benefit from this technology as a way to make digital photos more portable and easier to share.
Krista Napier is a Senior Analyst for Canadian Emerging Technology and Competitive Intelligence at IDC Canada . Krista brings to her role deep insight into emerging Canadian ICT companies through her work as the lead analyst for IDC Canada’s Technology Innovation Watch, which highlights up and coming Canadian technology stars. Krista also leads IDC Canada’s initiatives designed to help emerging Canadian IT companies succeed in bringing their products and services to market.
