HP has launched it’s retail/digital photo service snapfish in India.
snapfish, apart from being a free photo sharing site also offers basic editing capabilities and unlimited storage.
But the major USP of HP’s snapfish is HP’s retail reach which eventually means HP will play on the price points (as well as easy accessibility) in the Indian market.
HP’s retail presence in the country will be through self-operated kiosks that print digital photographs and accept credit card payments, a full-fledged photo centre providing for prints on canvas, mugs, T-shirts and other media and HP Micro Labs, a scaled down version of the photo centre. In about four years, HP is conservatively aiming at 3,000 photo outlets.
HP is tying up with channel partners and existing players for HP branded outlets to tap the market that’s estimated at around 3 billion prints per year in India.
The photos will be printed using HP inkjet and laser printers and have a shelf life of over 100 years if kept exposed and over 200 years if they are kept protected in an album or in a glass-protected photoframe. (source)
Currently, HP’s snapfish offers 4*6 print for Rs. 2.95/ (first 20 prints free) while iTasveer and Picsquare offer the same for Rs. 4.5 and 2.99/ respectively.
Apart from the consumer market, I do hope to see HP entering the corporate market and use their retail outlets for digital printing (and compete with Printo).
Interestingly, snapfish was acquired by HP in 2005 (a day after Y! acquired Flickr) and currently has 40 million members in 15 countries!
HP’s entry into this market is definitely a big boost to the overall ecosystem, but a big threat to the existing players (which are primarily startups).
What’s your take? Do you
- regard HP’s trusted brand a huge advantage over the Indian startups?
- Or would you have a tough time mapping HP as a “cool photo printing” service?
I’d love to know your thoughts.
tags: snapfish, itasveer, picsquare
Its definitely a great boost for the local services
Isn’t digital printing also becoming a commoditized space? I wonder how many such players will remain in the market after a year
i do not recommend snapfish india (snapfish.co.in). they took my order for photo-gift (mug & keychain) and fled away with the money, no email for confirmation or anything. customer service is only thru email which doesn’t work. yet to receive response after eight days. cannot cancel either because nobody replies to your email after submitting the form. there is no phone no. or any individual’s email address either where to contact. Stay away from snapfish!! They fleeced me of my money, but i won’t let that happen to others.
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Snapfish’s print quality is the BEST in India right now. I have tried all other services, like picsqaure, itasveer, etc. But HP’s quality of print, and promptness is unmatched.
HP photo printing is definitely going to give competition for the current photo printing centers like kodak and konica.
HP has got the quality however they lack marketing and are not known much in the photo printing domain, however this will improve over time.
You can print more photos for photos or free online from freephotoprintingnow co uk.
I am very much satisfied with snapfish’s Quality & Service….very prompt service and high quality print…!
Hp is doing the right think, but in Italy there are strong player like iprintitaly, photocity that works also on the retails
Ashish ji,
what about the customer psycology in online photo printing in india?
does the market ready to begin that type of service?
Is this the right time to start on line photo print business in india?
Regards
madhavan
This is a very smart move of Snapfish! The digital printing industry is very busy in the UK/Europe with lots of people fighting for space, however in India hardly anyone is offering photo printing.