Well, not exactly TV in a Card, but certainly a very cute Video in a Card.
Opening the TV in a card reveals a unique 4.3 inch, 320 x 240 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio LCD display with built-in storage for about 30 minutes of your own video footage. Each card has speakers and headphone jack, and the battery is rechargeable via the included USB port. Card sizes are A5 to A4.
"Battery and storage capacity can be increased to allow for upto 7.5 hours of video. Customers can opt to have the video auto-start when the card is opened or manual control buttons. It is also possible to load several MPEG, MOV or AVI format videos into one TV in a Card folder, which can be set to automatically play one after the other in order or be individually selected by the user."
"The card makers have a two strand approach to the TV in a Card launch. They will initially target a corporate audience but are close to launching a consumer website for people to design their own cards."
Currently "At a cost of around £55 per card it is more suited to corporate promotional uses than birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs. However, founder Russell Lawley Gibbs believes that the cards will be good for special occasions. He said: “This is brand new technology and is only about 2 months old. At the moment we are talking to advertising agencies for corporate promotions. However there is a large market for greetings cards and we see them working well for things like wedding videos or new baby announcements”.
Lovely idea. A no-brainer 21st century development on the wonderful novelty audio greeting cards we've all groan (sic) to love over recent years... No doubt costs will fall and screen sizes and options will increase... But £55..? No interaction? No Wifi? No webcam? We jest - for now...
But really, £55? 4.3 inch screen, 30 minute 320 x 240 res video, for a card?
Undoubtably demonstrating creative and very strong real-world marketing opportunities within the commercial world; with the exponential growth of smartphone and tablet apps, does TV in a Card have the usp to develop and sustain a strong retail consumer base? Especially when less than £200 gets you a 10 inch Android PC Tablet. We hope so.
Regardless, it's yet more good news for the ever innovative and creative British greeting card industry that this product is available. It'd be great to see TV in a Card succeed, especially if they can create the demand, develop the product and move the decimal point one place to the left. And the way things go nowadays, it seems entirely possible.
Check out the TV in a Card website, they have some very nice video examples.
Source: Greetings Today
Source: TV in a Card