Shoot it! LLC has developed a new mobile phone application that allows you to take pictures, personalize them with a message and then send them as postcards.
Tom McDermott, the founder of Shoot it! LLC, recalls how he first came up with the idea of sending postcards from a phone. He worked in the IT industry and often traveled overseas, and he was always looking for ways to stay in touch with friends and family. While he was in Europe several years ago, he was introduced to camera phones. One day, he thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could somehow mail a picture from a phone?” At the time, he realized that camera phones were not capable of doing this. Back then, they did not produce very good pictures, and most phones could not connect to the Internet. So, McDermott pondered the idea for several years.
When smartphones were introduced, he felt that the timing was right and began working on turning his idea into a reality. “You now have 3.2 megapixel phones in the U.S., and phones that can do over 10 megapixels in Europe,” McDermott observed.
Shoot it! is easy to use, and the postcard can be sent by regular mail anywhere in the world on the next business day. The application works on the iPhone and BlackBerry Curve 8900, Bold and Tour, and McDermott plans on making it available for all new smartphones later this year.
To use the service, you first need to set up an account on the Shoot it! Web site. You can then buy credits and refill your account as you wish. The cost for mailing a postcard to recipients with a U.S. address is 99 cents. For European addresses, the cost is $1.50.
McDermott hopes that his application will bring a smile to those who receive the postcards. He believes that a picture in your hands has a more meaningful impact than, say, receiving it by e-mail. “Somebody took the time to send you a nice note. To say ‘we’re having fun, wish you were here.’ That person will put the picture on their fridge, or their computer monitor … they keep it because someone took the time.”
