Digital picture screens have been around for a few years now. And as the cycle of technogical advance dictates, they’re becoming bigger, faster, brighter, and packs more and more features.

The frames produced a few years ago started off as little more than a rather dull LCD screen with a white or black plastic frame around it, clumsy software and a slow interface.

These days you can order touch screens, wireless, and interchangeable fascias from the ever-expanding menu of digital photo screens on the market.

There are three key areas in which digital photo screens will be improving in the foreseeable future:

Better screens: Expect screens to be getting bigger and brighter. Frames aimed at consumer as now approaching 15 inch in size. As they increase in size and start approaching the size of computer and television screens, it’ll be interesting to see if the product differentiation disappears or whether ‘digital photo frames’ can keep its niche. Portability and special functionalities such as on-screen clocks, calendars and other desktop applications will probably make the difference.

Interactivity: More and more frames have built-in wi-fi, meaning that they can connect to other wireless network, and of course, the Internet. Already some wireless screens are allowing users to stream online photos from services such as Flickr. One can expect this social network interactivity to develop further… imagine being able to stream photos from your Facebook friends on your digital photo frame!

Functionality: Most digital picture frames on the cheap end of the market are basically simple slide show viewers. A few are now incorporating touch screens, meaning that menus can offer more selections and inter alia more functionality. Expect more bells and whistles in terms of transitions and other gimmicks. Next thing, as mentioned desktop applications will start appearing on the menu. While some frames offer multimedia facilities that including video and sound capabilities, I’m not sure why anyone would like to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster or listen to Bach over the tinny speakers of a digital photo frame.

As with computers, televisions and other consumer electronics it’s impossible holding off for the ‘perfect’ digital photo frame. The best is to treat them as you do your laptop or cell phone that you’re upgrading every year or two budget for the next one that’s bigger, brighter and smarter!