Mobile Commerce - Shutterfly launches an app for photo-happy iPhone owners

App users can back up photos, order prints and create personalized gifts.

Managing Editor, Mobile Commerce

The e-retailer's new iPhone app.

Nearly half of all images taken by U.S. consumers in 2013 will be captured on a mobile phone, according to the InfoTrends U.S. Personal Photo Activity Forecast. Shutterfly Inc., an online retailer of personalized photo products and services, is seeking to capitalize on this shift in photography with a new mobile commerce app for iPhones. The free app combines photo storage, viewing and photo gift creation in one place.

A Shutterfly app user can create a personalized gift in minutes. The app asks permission to link to the user’s Photos section of her iPhone. She then chooses a photo and can see an instant preview of the photo on any of the Shutterfly app’s 30 gifts such as smartphone cases and wall art.

“At Shutterfly, we understand the importance of celebrating life’s everyday moments, and we know mobile photography continues to be on the rise,” says Heather Maddan, Shutterfly’s “chief storyteller.” “Shutterfly’s new iPhone app will allow customers to take photos from their iPhones and easily share them with loved ones and create prints, photo gifts and lasting memories.”

With the new app, Shutterfly customers with iPhones can:

Create 30 photo gifts with iPhone, Facebook, Instagram and Shutterfly photos.
Order prints with iPhone, Facebook, Instagram and Shutterfly photos including panorama prints that take advantage of Apple’s new iOS 6 panorama camera feature and square prints that match the Instagram photo format. The panorama feature enables a user to take multiple pictures and meld them into one extra wide shot.
Upload and back up iPhone photos to Shutterfly accounts. The uploading process clearly marks uploaded photos and keeps tracks of where users are in the upload process.
View an entire Shutterfly online picture collection from the phone and share Shutterfly photos via e-mail or post them to Facebook.

The Shutterfly iPhone Photo App is available for free in Apple Inc.’s App Store. Shutterfly is No. 53 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.