Less People Are Printing Photos at Home

A study by tech analyst firm Info Trends says that the percentage of digital camera owners who print at home declined by 10% between 2004 and 2006. How come? According to the report, because it is so easy to view digital photos on your computer, on your mobile video device, or on your camera, digital camera owners are just printing when they absolutely need to -- or are taking their photos to a retail outlet or an online printing service.

The report goes on to quote one of their analysts, as follows: “Although consumers are still mainly printing at home, the number of those who do so decreases every year due to the gaining popularity of online photo services and retail locations,” commented Sandra Collins , a consultant at InfoTrends. “The home will remain the most popular printing location for at least the next two years, but home printing volume will decline as prices for online and retail printing continue their downward trend.”

This, of course, doesn't affect those of us who print documents or things other than photos. However, it will be interesting to watch how the photo printer manufacturers react to this trend.