SEATTLE-It appears PictureIQ Corp. is shutting down its operations, making the company perhaps the first casualty of the picture messaging market.
A message on the company’s Web site said PictureIQ is shutting down. The company’s telephone lines have been disconnected, and e-mails sent to company officials have bounced back as undeliverable.
“PictureIQ is currently in the process of shutting down its business operations and cannot provide support at this time,” said the company on its Web site.
PictureIQ sold technology and servers to optimize and edit the delivery of images over wired and wireless networks. The company sold three main products, all related to camera phones and picture messaging. PictureIQ offered its TransForce Model 350 server to content providers, which the company said automated the delivery of Web-based services to desktop computers and mobile phones. The company said its TransForce MTS server transcoded, compressed and optimized multimedia content for multimedia messaging services. And PictureIQ said its PhotoForce product powered photo-sharing portals and picture messaging services.
PictureIQ was spun out of Adobe Systems Inc. in 1998. Since then, it managed to raise a total of $26 million in venture funding. The company counted 28 employees last year, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. The company, which operated a variety of services in Japan, counted Toshiba, Yahoo Photos, Ericsson, Lycos, Sony, Nikon, InfoSpace and others as customers. Interestingly, PictureIQ was named as one of the “Fiercest 15” wireless startups of 2003 by FierceWireless, an industry e-mail newsletter.
Other companies offering picture messaging and file compression technologies include LightSurf Technologies Inc., Vimatix Inc. and Mobixell Networks.
Following the introduction of camera phones in Japan several years ago, the picture messaging market has captured the worldwide wireless industry by storm. Handset makers are keen to sell integrated camera phones, hoping the devices will spur replacement sales. Carriers are hoping the devices will increase wireless data revenues. And content and technology providers have been working frantically to take advantage of the opportunity.
