Corel and Future Image Share Digital Imaging Industry Predictions; New Breakthroughs in Technology Will Make the Power of Digital Images More Accessible to the Mass Market and Corporate Enterprises

Business Wire, July 24, 2006

OTTAWA & SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: CREL; TSX: CRE), a leading global software provider, and Future Image, a market research and consulting firm focused on the future of imaging, today outlined the upcoming new technology developments, industry standards, and market trends that will make the power of digital images more accessible to the mass market and corporate enterprises in the future.

Alexis Gerard, co-author of Going Visual: Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision-Making and Profits and the principal analyst of Future Image, and Blaine Mathieu, General Manager of Corel's Digital Imaging Business Unit, shared their viewpoints on anticipated breakthroughs and emerging trends that will shape how consumers and businesses use digital photography and visual information to enhance their personal and professional lives in the future.

Anticipating how future trends and emerging technologies will make a major impact on the digital photography industry over the next five years, Gerard and Mathieu have nine insightful industry predictions in the following categories: mass market trends, new technologies and emerging standards.

Mass Market Trends:

--By 2007, over 80% of home image takers will have more than 5,000 photo and video images stored on their PCs.

--By 2008, home image takers will have placed images with at least three distinct online services.

--By 2010, 80% of knowledge workers will actively manipulate and improve photo or video images on a weekly basis. Corporations will become more dependent on visual communications to boost sales, enhance their professional images, improve security and communicate more effectively with foreign markets.

--The major "consumable" in digital imaging is the customer's time, which is much more costly than materials such as film and paper. Profits will come to vendors who help customers save time. Vendors will start capitalizing on this trend in 2007.

New Technologies and Emerging Standards:

--The next mainstream standard for camera-phones will be 3 3 -- 3 megapixels, 3x optical zoom. This standard will become prevalent by late 2007 in the United States.

--The next mainstream standard for point-and-shoot digital cameras will be 10 10 -- 10MP and 10x zoom. Expect to see that established no later than 2008.

--In the coming year, the digital imaging industry will see less standardization, not more, as market saturation pushes vendors to start innovating with devices and value propositions that diverge from the traditional models of photography.

--This year, 2006, is the beginning of the end of JPEG as the monolithic standard for image file formats.

--Digital capture has started to shift image editing from before capture -- with careful framing and composition -- to after capture by encouraging people to quickly and more casually take more pictures, and select the best ones later. This trend will increase with the advent of wider angle lenses as "pre-capture capture" becomes a mainstream application by 2008.

"We are entering an age where visual communications has become more essential than ever to improving our work and personal lives while fostering our social networks," said Gerard. "At the same time, we are seeing an explosion on the image capture side with the tremendous growth of camera-phones and other devices. People are taking thousands of new images each year. New developments in imaging software will now make it easier for consumers and businesses to access and share those images."

According to Mathieu, tackling the growing "digital shoebox" dilemma is a top priority for companies like Corel who seek to make images more accessible and valuable to users at work and at home.

"Right now, home users have thousands of images stored on PCs and with various online imaging services that are not being effectively used or shared because they can't find them, don't know how to share them, or are concerned with losing control of their images as they become spread across multiple online services. At the same time, corporate enterprises are starting to rely heavily on visual images to drive greater profits, build stronger relationships with customers, overcome language barriers and expedite decision making processes. These business users are looking for a better way to find, edit, store and share images in the future," said Mathieu.

Leading imaging industry analysts will discuss market trends and emerging standards during one of the sessions of the inaugural 6Sight(TM) conference on October 24 and 25, 2006 in Monterey, CA. The annual event brings together technologists, marketers, futurists, artists, educators, customers and members of the media for a program emphasizing innovative use cases, breakthrough technologies, and creativity. This year's theme is "The Connected Imaging Revolution" - imaging tools that help people connect more effectively with each other through user-generated content, for work, personal, and community purposes

For more information on the 6Sight conference, please visit www.6sight.com or contact Joe Byrd at JByrd@FutureImage.com.