QuickBird offered sub-meter resolution imagery with high geolocational accuracy. With global collection of panchromatic and multispectral imagery, QuickBird was designed to support a wide range of geospatial applications: 

• Acquire high quality satellite imagery for map creation, change detection, and image analysis
• Geolocate features to create maps in remote areas without the use of ground control points
• Collect a greater supply of frequently updated global imagery products
• Extend the range of suitable imaging collection targets and enhance image interpretability

At its resolution, detail such as buildings and other infrastructure were easily visible. The imagery was imported into remote sensing image processing software, as well as into GIS packages for analysis.

The satellite was a source of environmental data useful for analyses of changes in land usage, agricultural and forest climates. 

QuickBird's imaging capabilities had applied to a host of industries, including oil and gas exploration and production (E&P), engineering and construction and environmental studies.

QuickBird made more than 70,000 orbits, capturing some 636 million square kilometres of high-resolution imagery. QuickBird simultaneously collected up to 0.61 m panchromatic and 2.88 m four band multi-spectral data.

The large swath width of 16.5 km combined with 128 Gigabit on-board storage enabled QuickBird to collect with high geolocational accuracy 210,000 km² of high-resolution imagery per day, or more than 75 million km² of imagery data annually (over three times the size of North America).