Experts say the Quickbird's capabilities have been in military hands for as long as 15 years. It is believed American spy satellites can now detect objects as small as 12.5cm in size.
Quickbird will struggle with the same problems Ikonos faced, including weather.
"You can always try to make a computer faster but you just can't compensate for the Earth being 60 percent covered in cloud," Space Imaging spokesman Gary Napier said.
It remains to be seen how sharp an image the market will bear, or customers will need. Images are expensive, as is the storage of enormous imaging files on computers. Furthermore, licenses with the government require Quickbird and the future Ikonos satellites to hold images for 24 hours before selling them.
"I'm being a little patient and letting the market tell us where we want to go," said Herb Satterlee, Quickbird's president and chief executive.
That may wind up working in the satellite companies' favor.
Concerns have been raised over how another commercial satellite might threaten national security.
Like other US companies, the satellite operators may not sell to countries that sponsor terrorism or rogue states, and many other banned groups. The US government may also tell Quickbird or Ikonos operators to shutter their satellites completely in the name of national security. So far, the government has not invoked this clause, even after Sept. 11.
Ann Florini, a space policy expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, doubts the satellites will be of much use to terrorists.
"They would have to have such a technological infrastructure, such a system for data analysis, not to mention the military capability to put the information to use," she said. "The satellites themselves are really a trivial part of the equation."
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