Polaroid Plans To Produce The Instagram Camera By 2014

If you missed the first round of press coverage, Socialmatic is a 16GB camera with a 4-inch-wide screen. It lets you apply retro-ish filters to your photos before uploading them to Facebook, Instagram, or a yet-to-be-designed Socialmatic app. A Zink (zero ink) printer, a bit like Polaroid’s own, lets you print out sticky-backed images on demand.

Despite being deeply embedded in Instagram culture, Socialmatic has no affiliation with the social photo app. Which is incredibly strange–the face of the device is plastered with Instagram’s SLR camera logo, and every picture it prints out is accompanied by a QR code link to your Instagram account. Socialmatic is piggybacking on the wild popularity of the Instagram brand, and unless it comes up against any legal problems, could fool a whole lot of people. Doubly so when you add a Polaroid endorsement into the mix–the value of those two brand associations alone are transforming Socialmatic into a legitimate product.

De Rosa was hesitant to comment on what’s changed since he struck his deal with C&A. When asked if the deal had affected the design, he answered a cryptic, “Could be. It depends on some technical situations.” One of those technical situations could be the Zero Ink printing technology, which would drive the cost up. But according to De Rosa, the release date is still too far out to make a guess on Socialmatic’s price tag. “It will be for everyone,” he assured me (a previous estimate was $350).

Sources Via techtogeekz.com