NEW YORK, US: In order to envisage the change of guard from 'printers to printing', US-based Hewlett-Packard is looking at launching its online photo service focused, Snapfish in India by this year-end.

Subsequently, the company will also weave a network of printing service providers to compliment its overall offering in the printing domain for this region.

"India is a very important market for us and we are going to bring this change from printers to printing," said Larry Lesley, senior vice president, Digital Photography and Entertainment, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. "Ever since we acquired SnapFish in March 2005, its registered users have increased from 13 million in 2005 to more than 42 million global registered users today. We would be bringing Snapfish to India by year end and consequently develop a set of print service focused partner set in this region."

Encouraging the development of the overall printing ecosystem, HP already has partnerships with some of the biggest printing solution providers like District Photo, a direct–to-consumer photo service, OfficeDepot and Staples in the US. As it plans to launch Snapfish in India, the company would be looking forward to having similar partnerships in place in this region as well.

"We are working with select 'print service providers' in the US and we would be having a similar strategy to work with such partners in other geographies as well. India is surely a high growth potential market for us and we would surely be looking at aligning ourselves at multiple levels," he said.

With convergence of mobile devices driving a lot of digital content to the web, the company is also looking at mobility as an area of growth and promise. "Mobile is a space which has changed a lot and is still evolving. SnapFish has a mobile compatibility as well, so we would surely look at mobility as one are of focus for us," Lesley added.