Case Study

Agenda
Product Offering Technology Market Management SWOT Analysis Competition USPs Potential Buyers References

Company Overview

Company Overview

Formerly known as Refocus Imaging, Inc. ,company was founded by Dr. Ren Ng in 2006 Company is based on founders award winning light field dissertation at Stanford University Lytro produces low price light field cameras aimed at consumer market instead of industry and scientific applications Company has raised almost $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, NEA, K9 ventures and some individual investors Advisory board includes co founders of VMWare, Intuit and Sling media and two Nobel Laureates Products were available for pre-order in 2011 and shipping begun earlier this year Company is headquartered in Mountain View, California with some operations in Hongkong

Product Offering

Plenoptic cameras offered in 2 different memory ranges
Cameras are a squared tube with a 1.46 inch LCD touchscreen and 4.41 inches long Internal flash memory Mac only desktop application to import light field picture file(.lfp) Free storage space on Lytro server for living pictures No support for external flash memory No Wi-Fi/Bluetooth support Except for the memory and color , it is one basic product with no options on resolution or display 8GB; Electric Blue; $399 front. No video recording Only two levels of focus Product catalog doesnt mention resolution of the light field picture
8GB; Graphite;$399

16GB; Red Hot; $499

Light Field Camera

Technology
Light field technology captures all light rays travelling in all directions from a scene and presents the huge data to a microlens array and image sensor for processing. Compared to a traditional camera a light field camera gathers not only the color/intensity information but also direction information falling on each focal plane point. This technology implies: 1. Shoot now, focus later. Auto focus is not required which translates into faster snaps then point and shoot cameras. 2. Depth of focus. Since all light is captured from the scene, plenoptic cameras store depth information from the scene. Lytro camera currently supports two level of depths. 3. 3D images. Since living picture stores the depth information, 3D images can be constructed using advanced software

Image Source: Lytro.com

Market
Digital Still Camera (DSC) (101.6% YoY change)

Million Units Sold

118 117 116 115 114 2011

Itemized Break up
100 99.5 99 98.5

2012

20 18 16 14

Interchangeable Lens Cameras (116.6% YoY change)

Built-In Lens Cameras (99.2% YoY change)

2011 2012 2011 2012 Low end DSC models to expect stiff competition from cell phone cameras Low end DSC rarely have internet connectivity features. Through a smart phone users can easily share their photos and videos on social networking sites. Also DSC rarely have GPS navigation system, which enables geo-tagging. 3D camera technology is expected to be the next big thing in DSC market.

Management
Company founder Ren Ng earned his PhD on light field
technology from Stanford University

Charles Chi, Executive Chairman has around 20 years of

technology management and VC experience

His experience along with other team members expertise

should enable Lytro to diversify its product line

An average of 17+ years of technology focused work

experience for a team of 8

Most of team members have history of

and innovation

entrepreneurship

SWOT Analysis
Strength
Low price for advanced technology Aimed at consumers rather than industry and scientific applications Logic is built into the microlens array instead of software No focus problem and hence its faster to click snaps

Opportunities
No light field camera in market for this price range Extra megapixels are not a selling point anymore for DSC market Expanding DSC market in India

Untapped 3D still and video market

Weakness

Low resolution camera Only 2 levels of depth in living picture Not enough depth in product line No video recording Tiny display compared to other DSCs Mac only desktop application No internet connectivity No tools or buttons to provide DoF

Threats

Declining DSC sales Raytrixs custom lightfield microlens array for DSCs Increasing smart phone sale Improvements in image sensor technology for cell phones Dual lens technology for DSCs

Competition
Raytrix GmbH
Major light field camera manufacturers for scientific and industrial applications Also creates custom light field lenses for digital cameras Camera capable of video capturing available in 1-7.25 megapixel range starting

with a price tag of 3,600 euros upto 36,000 euros

Pelican Imaging

Founded in 2008 company manufactures ultra thin cameras based on light field

lens array and algorithms for mobile phones Indirect competition since mobile phones can eat into digital cam market Marc Levoy also advises Pelican apart from Lytro

Panasonic

Dual lens digital cameras to take 2D and 3D snaps and videos Dual lens create Extended Depth of Focus with blur effect

HTC

EVO 3D: Dual 5 MP camera phone to capture 3D videos 4.3 inch touchscreen 3D display

USPs
No fuss focus
Shoot now focus later, since a plenoptic camera catches
intensity and direction of light, user need not worry about focus when clicking

Speed
Since camera involves no shutter and no focusing is
involved user can click pics faster

Competitive pricing
Quite cheap when compared to Raytrixs 3,600 euros for
a 1MP camera

3D effect
Due to 2 depths of focus living pictures create a 3D effect

Potential Buyers
Apart from technological know how and IP in an exciting new technology Lytro doesnt have sales/tangible assets to add value to shareholders or generate synergies.

Vertical Merger

Horizontal Merger
To acquire IP, patents and technological know how, following camera manufacturers can acquire Lytro: 1. Panasonic 2. Samsung 3. Nikon 4. Canon Samsung has double reason to acquire Lytro, for its camera as well as phone product lines. If the acquirer is able to produce a consumer oriented plenoptic camera with video capture at a reasonable price, it will be industry leader in consumer segment, even after taking into account product canibalization.

Possible Value addition/Synergy:

To acquire IP, patents and technological know how, following phone manufacturers can acquire Lytro: 1. Apple 2. Samsung 3. Nokia 4. RIMM Adding a new dimension to phone cameras might be timely as high MP may not stay a selling point for phones too. New plenoptic camera will also provide App store owners new stream of revenues from new apps for the brand new editing needs of the end user.

Possible Value addition/Synergy:

References
1. Lytro: Its focusing on the wrong problem 2. Panasonic announces compact digital camera capable of shooting 3D photos and videos 3. Lytro Website 4. LinkedIn.com 5. Wikipedia.org 6. Raytrix Website 7. Can Lytro bring light.field camera to the masses ? 8. Lytros Light Field Camera gets torndown, reveals WiFi, Bluetooth capabilities 9. What is the Light field camera from Lytro good for ? 10. FCC Test Report 11. Marvell Avastar 88W8787 SoC 12. 2012 Outlook on the Shipment Forecast by Product-Type Concerning Cameras and Related Goods 13. http://www.cellular-news.com/story/47245.php 14. Panasonic Lumix DMC 3D1 15. Did Apple want to include Lytro tech in iPhone camera?