NEW YORK, N.Y. - On November 19, nationwide wireless carrier T-Mobile USA will get into the picture frame business. Specifically, the carrier will be offering a digital picture frame, dubbed the T-Mobile Cameo, that comes with its own phone number.

T-Mobile customers will be able to send photos snapped with camera phones such as the Motozine ZN5 directly to the new Cameo frames, created for the carrier by Parrot, Inc.

In an interview with BetaNews at this week's CES Unveiled event in New York City, Parrot's Mike Hedge said T-Mobile customers will transmit the photos through a choice of e-mail or multimedia messaging (MMS).

Really, though, the T-Mobile cameo represents only one of three new digital frames introduced by Parrot at the pre-CES press event. The two others were conceived by two French designers Martin Szekely, who's reportedly been heralded as a "master of minimalism," and Andree Putnam.

"Parrot is based in France, you know," noted Hedge, who is Parrot's VP for North American marketing and corporate communications.

Parrot is joining the fast-growing digital picture frame market, albeit with its frames having their own phone numbers. At a Consumer Electronics Association press conference earlier the same day, analysts mentioned digital picture frames in the same breath as mobile phones, external hard drives, and video games as among several CE product categories that will actually draw more sales revenues this holiday season than last.

At a Showstoppers press event early this fall, Giant International demo'd its InTouch device, a "wireless Internet frame," priced at $349.99, that does double duty as a Wi-Fi-capable Web access device and audio-enabled photo/video frame.

Parrot, however, is differentiating itself with products at the "high end," according to Hedge. The frame designed by Putnam, for example, will display photos in "262,144 shades of color" on a 720 x 480 pixel wide LCD screen.

But unlike the T-Mobile Cameo, the frames by the French designers aren't network-enabled. Instead, users of the other frames will transmit pictures from cameras to the frames via a choice of Bluetooth, mini-USB card, or any of a large number of supported memory card formats.

The T-Mobile Cameo photo frame will sell for $99.99, plus a $9.99 monthly service fee. Meanwhile, the frames created by Szekely and Putnam will be sold at Neiman Marcus and expensive boutiques such as Fred Segal in Los Angeles, with pricing in the $450 to $550 range.