[Update] Color: Is this iPhone App ‘Worth’ $41 Million Dollars?

Another social media sharing photo app has launched (yes, another), joining the foray of others such as Instagram and Path. The app Color, is the newest entrant and is making noise in Silicon Valley because they were able to raise $41 million dollars in start up funding (before launch!). Oh, did I mention the app is free? What is Color all about?

Think fast!

Find someone. Take pictures together.
Party. Play date. Lunch?

Simultaneously use multiple iPhones and Androids to capture photos, videos, and conversations into a group album. There’s no attaching, uploading, or friending to do.

Share together in a new, moving social network. Just look around.

One of the prominent founders of Color is Bill Ngyuen (founder of Lala, that was eventually bought up by Apple). Although his resume is impressive, upon testing Color, this app is not. I guess it requires right environment to use it in (such as already being in line for iPad 2).

Here’s the app description:

WARNING: DON’T USE COLOR ALONE.

Use Color to take photos and videos with other people who have iPhones within 150 ft to create a group album.

For parties, play dates, lunch? You get their photos, they get yours. Share any album with Twitter and Facebook.

Color is a social network for your iPhone.

I tested Color and it’s a very simple application. You take pictures–and that’s it. Your pictures will be ‘detected’ by others using Color as your photos share your GPS location. What I do like is that there’s no need to register or find friends. I will update this post when I test it in a public place, hopefully where there are more users.

The problem with an app like Color is that since there are no social networks to connect to it, the app relies solely on downloads (such as Localmind). We all know how hard it is to convince friends to download an app to their iPhone.

It’s early on in the game and so far Color has mixed reviews. It’ll be interesting to see how it fare in 6-12 months time. However, I don’t see how this app can compete with Instagram and Path, that have userbases that are insurmountable. I do think the team at Color could do a better job at explaining what the app does though. It’s a simple idea that people need to try out to fully understand.

Update 1: Check out the following video via @kmore, who shares his thoughts on Color on his blog:

Click here to download Color and let me know what you think!

[BusinessInsider]

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