Digital Photo Frames Entering More Households

It didn't seem that long ago when the only news you seemed to hear about digital photo frames involved a pretty nasty virus that did nasty things to your computer. Even major retailers Amazon and Best Buy didn't escape that whole ordeal unscathed.

But the whole virus hullabaloo apparently didn't faze everyone as a recent report from market research and consulting firm Parks Associates now predicts digital frame adoption to exceed 1 in 4 households this holiday season. Actually, make that 1 in 4 U.S. households with broadband. For the math-challenged, that's an adoption rate of more than 25 percent &mdash compared to only 7 percent in 2007.

Still, activity in the market has apparently lost some of its sizzle recently.

"The meteoric growth rate of digital photo frames has cooled off," said Harry Wang, Parks Associates director of of health and mobile product research, in a statement. "(But) consumer familiarity and its appeal as a premium gift choice will keep demand healthy for the next few years."

You know what might cause demand to skyrocket again? Lowering prices, that's what. It actually isn't unusual to see some of these things reach triple digits in price. I've even seen some priced at $299! I don't know about you but I think that's a tad too expensive.

If you're interested in browsing for digital photo frames, you can check out this price comparison.

Photo © Sony