Snapfish prices head downstream
Online photo service, which was recently acquired by HP, drops prices on digital prints by up to 45 percent.
The move comes as HP angles for a larger share of the fast-growing but still nascent digital-photography market.
Snapfish is dropping prices on 4-by-6-inch prints by 37 percent to 12 cents from 19 cents, said Ben Nelson, the head of Snapfish.
For customers who prepay for prints, prints will now cost 10 cents, down from 17 cents.
Snapfish's price drops undercut other online photo service companies, such as Eastman Kodak's KodakEasyShare Gallery, which charges 25 cents per 4-by-6-inch print, and Shutterfly, which charges 19 cents per 4-by-6-inch print.
Snapfish, which claims more than 13 million registered users, also continues to grow rapidly, Nelson said, adding that part of the reason HP is able to cut its prices is because the Snapfish unit is adding more than 500,000 registered users each month.
Nelson declined to give Snapfish's annual revenue but said the HP unit will remain profitable after the price cuts.
"We're still making money at both the 10 cent and 12 cent prices," Nelson said. "We're growing at probably a much faster rate than the other online photo printing companies."
Snapfish, like other online photo services, offers free online photo sharing, photo storage and management, free editing and software, as well as online print ordering. It also offers some 70 photo gifts such as picture-emblazoned coffee mugs, T-shirts and other items.
HP is also cutting prices on other print sizes. A 5-by-7-inch print now costs 39 cents to 79 cents, depending on the number of prints ordered--down from 59 cents to 95 cents; 8-by-10-inch prints were reduced to $2.99 each from $3.79; and wallet-size prints are 99 cents, down from $1.79.