Before your send out your letter to Santa, make sure to check that wish list twice. Chances are you forgot to add a selfie stick to your Christmas list. Yes, that's right, the self stick is one of this year's must-have gifts— well, in the UK that is.
The selfie stick is exactly what it sounds like: a pole that attaches to your phone and extends your camera over three feet away so you can capture the perfect selfie. This smartphone accessory is perfect for getting everyone in on that holiday group shot or that panoramic pic of the snow flurries.
The selfie stick first became a hit in Asia, rising to popularity thanks to its use in extreme sports. The selfie stick helps self-obsessed techies take the perfect shot easily with its light-weight pole that is easy to grip. After two British entrepreneurs, Neil Harvey and Steve Pengelly saw a market for the popular Asian trend in the UK, they formed Selfie Pods. The company now sells five different versions of the product.
The simply selfie stick allows users to set a phone timer to capture the picture, which start at £7.99, but more high-tech models come with Bluetooth shutter releases that will cost you £14.99.
"Lots of people think "what is the point of this?" but once you've had a go on one and seen the cool pictures you can produce without the need for a cameraperson, you realize that these little things are really quite a cool bit of kit," Harvey said.
Selfie Pods have sold 6,000 units from August to November, and sold another 5,000 during the high-demand this holiday season.
While it hasn't really caught on in the U.S., there are plenty of different kinds of selfie accessory solids like the Selfie Brush or Selfie Sombrero. It's only a matter of time before the seflie stick is used in America, especially since Twitter named 2014 as the year of the selfie. The word has been mentioned over 92 million times and even added into the Oxford Dictionary.
[Photo Credit: Garry Knight/Flickr]
