The survey, carried out by market analysts Futuresource Consulting, also points to a potentially massive market for printed photo products; given that ‘1.8 billion photos’ are uploaded to the internet each day.
‘At this scale, if consumers were to print just a minimal amount of photos stored on smartphones, tablets, photo-sharing platforms and the iCloud, the uplift in the number of printed photo products ordered could be phenomenal,’ said Futuresource, which surveyed more than 1,500 consumers in the UK, France and Germany.
‘Photo printing seems like a long-forgotten exercise for many and, for others, it’s something that they are too young to have grown up with.
‘For the digital-savvy twenty-something, sharing photos using a smartphone, tablet or app has become the social norm…’
When it comes to ordering photo products, the report found that ‘ease of use’ was the most important factor for consumers when choosing an app to order from a smartphone or tablet.
Smartphones were the most popular way to share images, with almost 40% of respondents in the UK and Germany using them for this purpose.
‘The number of consumers ordering photo products from smartphones has doubled since this research was last undertaken during 2013,’ concluded Futuresource’s Print & Imaging team.
Futuresource drew its data from online interviews with consumers who owned both a digital camera and a smartphone.
