Photography may be going digital but people still love paper prints

Digital photography is growing at a phenomenal rate. But so too is the market for quality photo paper with year on growth of 30% per annum. Photo album supplier Arrowfile says that people still love paper prints.

Digital photography is growing at a phenomenal rate. The market in Europe is now worth $2.6 billion and according to Newsweek, sales of digital cameras in the US will outstrip sales of traditional cameras for the first time this year.

But while the means of taking photographs has changed dramatically, the means of viewing, sharing, and storing them has not -- people still love paper prints and photo albums. As a result, the demand for quality photo paper has been growing at 30% per year.

Thats good news for photo album producer, Arrowfile. According to Kesh Morjaria, people love to have photographs in their hands and love to have albums they can share with friends and family".

Many people dont have access to a computer and for those that do, its not always portable. Having a photo album specially designed to store every size of digital print is ideal."

Arrowfile have been running their business through catalogue sales over the last 15 years but to reach the new breed of digital photographer they realised they needed to take their business online.

We invested heavily in an ecommerce website and went live at the start of 2003. Response has been staggering -- in the month of June alone, our gross sales exceeded the complete cost of the website."

Companies such as Kodak, Epson and TDK have not been slow to spot the consumer preference for printed photos and all have introduced new lines of quality photo paper.

The market for photo paper has been growing at about 30% per year. The big problem with photo paper was that images faded within a few years but these new papers solve that and will not fade for up to 200 years. And if people store them in purpose-made albums they will last even longer."

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For further information contact:
Ken McGaffin
McGaffin.com
114 De Beauvoir Road
London
Tel: 020 7684 6895
Email: ken@mcgaffin.com
Kesh Morjaria
Arrowfile
10 The Broadway
Mill Hill
London
NW7 3LL
Tel: 020 8959 8105
Email: kesh@flashfoto.com

Useful articles:

Whats Next for Digital Photography
http://www.msnbc.com/news/942457.asp?cp1=1
Kodak introduces small format papers and everyday paper
http://www.ephotozine.com/news/fullnews.cfm/newsid/872/catselect/34/company/ephoto
Sales show digital photography is no flash in the pan
http://straitstimes.asia1.com/techscience/story/0,4386,206810-1062021540,00.html?
TDK INKJET PAPER RANGE REFINED AND RELAUNCHED
http://www.tdk.com.au/press/pr_020700.htm