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Comment by hnsmurf | Hacker News Reader

I feel like selling printed photos is a lot like selling CDs. You know at some point nobody will ever use these anymore. You don't know when, exactly, and they'll probably outlast the CD, but I personally already get annoyed when someone gives me a non-digital version of a photo. If I like it enough I scan it and throw it out, if I don't I just trash it directly.

Every day a bunch of people who want printed photos die, and a bunch of people who will never want one are born. That's not a good spot to be in for the long term.

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Prints are just our first venture into the space. We'll use this to create a place where people store their best photos. We think there's a good opp to be had if we're in that situation.

Printed photos and CDs differ in that printed photos are useful without a computer, whereas CDs hold no sentimental value and are used only as a transfer medium.

My parents would greatly disagree with you. They're fairly computer literate, but for them photos don't "count" unless they're on paper. I always feel guilty because they never get to see many of my good photos locked away in Aperture. I think that's exactly the market here.

Exactly. Your parents. Not you.

(That said, there’s plenty of time for this startup to thrive. I wouldn’t worry about it.)

My wife feels the same way, actually. But isn't that the market here. It is computer literate people with lots of digital pictures (me), with relatives that want prints (my family).

I don't think this startup should worry about the demise of prints any more than Netflix worried about the demise of the DVD when they started. (Of course, they've since worked hard to transition to digital, and been very successful at that, but not at the beginning.)

Well we're obviously just talking about anecdotal evidence here, but I'm a young-ish hacker-news-reading programmer, and I am really excited about this service because I love having prints. I also want to sign my brother up for this so I can get pics of my nephew but only 15 per month, not the usual 150-per-facebook album.

I think you are on to something there with the 15 prints a month limit...

Figure out some way to create a scarcity of images, so only the worthwhile pictures are used/shown, not the 150-per-facebook album, as you mentioned.

Maybe I'm an outlier here - but I actually prefer physical photos. It's too easy for someone to just spray digital photos everywhere - when they're physical, you have constraints that mean I'm seeing the photos you decided were worthy of being printed.

Apparently my market is supposed to shrink - but I know among friends as well, a printed photo still carries a lot more weight than a digital one ever will.

Yeah I'm certainly not suggesting there's no demand for this now. I just think the demand will shrink over time. I don't think I'd want to try to build a long term business in a market that will certainly shrink.

Until you can stick a digital photo on your fridge, prints are here to stay.

or as pg put it "until everyone has a touch screen fridge"

Even then, it still doesn't feel the same.

You get annoyed when someone goes to the trouble of giving you a photo they considered important enough to print and share with you? I understand that living simply is a goal, but that sounds a little silly. Your comment makes me wonder if you stab these unlucky photos with a pencil and burn them before "trashing it directly" — presumably before the jerk can leave the room so that they understand the existential crisis they have narrowly averted. :)

It's safe to say that humans are a sentimental and even nostalgic bunch. We crave individuality and expression, and photos are the ultimate simple expression of our life and times. Getting prints back is a joy greater than Christmas (for those into that sort of thing) any day of the year. It's actually kind of addictive, and having physical copies of those moments trumps online sharing for all of the obvious tactile reasons.

As long as people have kids and crushes, books-in-progress and wallets there will be printed photos... and thank goodness for that.

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