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Introduction The market for digital photography is maturing, and this brings more choices for outputting digital photos. The growth of snapshot-sized photo printers designed solely for photo printing has helped fuel photo printing at home. Photo printing in the home provides an opportunity for supplies vendors to encourage users to increase their consumption of inkjet supplies such as inks and photo papers. By their very nature, photos require a lot of ink and photo papers are premium-priced compared to standard uncoated papers. As a result, it does not take a significant increase in photo printing habits to generate significant consumption of photo printing supplies. InfoTrends’ new European study, Photo Printing in the Home, examines why photos are printed, how often printing takes place, the number of photos that are produced, the size and type of media used, and the preferred brands for inkjet papers and ink cartridges. The study takes a look at home printing, retail locations, kiosks, and online photo printing sites.Research was conducted in the Summer of 2006 and yielded over 1,500 responses across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Where People are Printing The study indicated that 63% of respondents most often printed their digital photos at home compared to other options for photo printing. Online printing services and retail printing were the second and third most used locations, respectively. 72% of respondents believe that home printing is faster and more convenient than other alternatives except when it comes to large print volumes. Retail photo printing services are considered most convenient for larger photo printing jobs. Over half of our survey respondents also believe that retail photo printing in its various formats offers a better quality print. This may be because respondents perceive home printing as an amateur solution compared to commercial photo printing options, even if they are happy with the quality of the photo prints that they are producing at home. Consumables Used On average, respondents indicated capturing 67 digital photos per month and printing out 25% of those photos taken. 10 x 15 cm is the most popular size for photos that are printed at home, reflecting the fact that this format is now widely available for purchase in the retail environment. A4 papers account for 16% of the total and remain popular amongst users who like larger pictures or want to print more than one photo on a single page. Figure 1: How do you expect your use of A4 paper to change vs.
In terms of what brand of photo printer people are most commonly using, HP leads the way in terms of market share. Epson, Canon, and Lexmark are also popular for printing photos at home. The study reveals a link between brands of printers owned and the supplies brands that are chosen—HP, Epson, and Canon represent half of the brands used by respondents. These findings indicate that many users do prefer to use the same brand of paper as their device, despite the large numbers of alternative brands on the market and the special offers that often come into play with these papers. Figure 2: How often do you purchase OEM brands and
On the cartridge side of the market, there is an even stronger connection between printer brand and cartridge brand. This is to be expected, since the alternative to an OEM branded cartridge is a refilled or compatible ink product. The preceding is an excerpt from InfoTrends’ study entitled “The Inkjet Photo Supplies Opportunity in the Home: A European Perspective.” The complete document is available immediately. To learn more about the report or to make a purchase, contact:
Copyright © 2006 InfoTrends. All rights reserved. Reproduction or reuse of InfoTrends materials is strictly prohibited without prior written consent. If you are interested in referencing InfoTrends’ content, please submit your request to .
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