It sold equity to Motorola, Discovery, Media One Group and other strategic partners, putting their executives on the board. It partnered with camera makers such as Nikon and Olympus to develop fish-eye attachments for popular digital cameras and distribute the Ipix software. Last summer it sold stock to the public. After inking deals with many Web portal sites, the company last week signed the big kahuna, America Online. Soon, AOL's 20 million subscribers will be able to take virtual Ipix tours of Las Vegas and other cities.
Critics still abound.
They are sore that Ipix threatened to sue a German engineer to prevent him from displaying tips for converting Ipix pictures into other 3-D formats on the Web. Some critics believe Ipix's patents are too broad, potentially stifling development of alternative imaging tools. Even stickier are Ipix usage fees. Trying to create a future revenue model as strong as Kodak's for film processing, Ipix charges users for each image they save, with fees going higher for images posted online. Critics note that unlike Kodak, Ipix doesn't do anything after selling the software that develops the image.