Smartphone/tablet photo app users will make products, according to study

Data from a new study by Suite 48 Analytics shows the new generation of mobile photographers will buy photo products if given innovative apps and workflows

Photo app users are a largely untapped opportunity for the photo output industry, according to Photo Product Purchasing Survey among Mobile Photo App Users, which Suite 48 Analytics conducted among 982 North American and 515 European photo app users.

The study found 42 percent of the North American photo app users are younger than 25 and 55 percent have never ordered any type of photo output products – let alone products including any of their smartphone photos.

“The biggest bottleneck for this new generation of photo app users is not the quality of smartphone photos, as is often assumed,” says Hans Hartman. principal analyst. at Suite 48 Analytics. “Only 13 percent of the photo app users stated the quality of photos from their smartphone has held them back from ordering photo products. It turns out the bigger problem is a lack of innovative photo product creation and ordering apps, coupled with cumbersome creation and ordering workflows.”

Only 5 percent of the circa 500 top ranking photo apps in the Apple and Google app stores offer any photo product creation or ordering functionality, as reported in The Photo & Video App Market Analysis October Report, a recent study of the photo apps market by Suite 48 Analytics. Accordingly, it’s no surprise only 9 percent of smartphone users who order photo output products do this directly from their smartphone, and the corresponding figure for tablet users is just 25 percent.

According to Hartman, the lack of output product ordering capabilities in the apps is forcing smartphone and tablet users to revert to more complicated and burdensome workflows involving uploading or transferring mobile device photos to larger screen devices, such as computers or kiosks.

Based on information supplied by survey respondents, Hartman recommends a dual approach to accessing this untapped opportunity:

• To be successful with the “here and now generation” of photo app users, the industry needs easy apps enabling photo app users to immediately place orders for the simpler photo products (photo printings, greeting cards, mugs, T-shirts, etc.). These could be dedicated photo output product apps or product ordering features added to the more popular photo enhancement or sharing apps.
• Both this new generation and the older generation (more familiar with ordering photo output products on their computer or kiosk) could benefit from easier and more ubiquitous workflows to have their photos at their fingertips at any time, on any device. These workflow improvements could be of particular value for the more complex photo products, such as multi-page photo books, which are harder to create on smaller screens.

Finally, the study also measured the potential for innovative photo apps leveraging the unique capabilities of smartphones as a photo-taking platform. One-third of photo app users who have never ordered photo output products containing smartphone photos declared themselves likely or very likely to order photo output products if given an app that automatically requested photos from friends who took photos at the same time and place. The study highlighted these findings as an example of how innovative photo apps could spur demand for photo output products.

The 96-page Photo Product Purchasing Survey among Mobile Photo App Users includes 82 graphs and 13 tables.