Los Altos, CA—As photo books’ share of the photo output market continues to expand and their prices trend higher than those for most other photo products, a range of apps have come to market that enable photographers to easily create and order simplified photo books on their mobile devices, according to the Photo Output App Market study released by Suite 48 Analytics.
Originally considered “too difficult” to design on small-screen devices, photo books can now be created in an array of apps boasting “easy,” “simple” or “quick to create.”
According to the study, many of these easy apps offer the user a limited number of templates and book sizes. Some of the more innovative apps, rather than limiting design choices, make it simple for users to select photos for inclusion in the book by hiding blurred photos or duplicates, or by suggesting matching photos based on location or date.
According to Hans Hartman, author of the study, the trade-off between ease of use and limited customizability might be a necessary evil now, but it will disappear over the next few years. 
“Deep learning technologies, which are already making big strides in areas such as image recognition and augmented reality, will dramatically expand options both for automatically suggesting the best photos to be included in the books and for enabling the average user to create books through smart, rich and highly customizable layouts,” said Hartman.
More intelligent and dynamic layout engines could in particularly be useful for what the study labels as “multi-product apps.” These apps let users create different photo products. Such products could include calendars, photo prints and photo books.
“Today, an app developer has to choose between the user interface benefits of a photo book-optimized app and the up-selling and cross-selling benefits of a multi-photo product app that requires a more universal interface. In the future, the user interfaces will be so smart and adaptive that they will deliver both types of benefits through a single app,” added Hartman.
The Photo Output App Market is a 68-page report that includes 14 charts and 12 tables. It addresses the following topics: the photo product categories offered; the most downloaded apps; multi-product apps; single product apps – photo books; single product apps – prints; single-product apps – postcards; free apps; highly rated apps; acquired apps; and native apps versus responsive web design. In addition, the study covers the B2B mobile photo output landscape, the B2B integration supply chain, B2B output product categories and B2B integration considerations for photo app developers. The study can be ordered at suite48a.com/outputapps.
Suite 48 Analytics
Suite 48 Analytics is a leading research and analysis firm for the mobile photography market.. It conducts app market analysis and research among smartphone and tablet users. Its reports include the Multi-device Photo World – an Ecosystem in Flux, Dispersed Photo Challenge, Photo Output Product Survey Among Mobile Photographers, and also Photo/Video App Market Analysis. Suite 48 Analytics also organizes the annual Mobile Photo Connect conference. The executive conference focuses on promoting innovation and partnerships in the mobile photography ecosystem. suite48a.com
