Shutterfly Breaking Into Mobile Photo Gift Making with New iOS App

It was a pretty popular week for photography-related iOS app releases. First Facebook steps all over Snapchat’s toes with its new ‘Poke’ app, and now Shutterfly has decided to enter the mobile market, putting its recent Penguin Digital acquisition to work. The launch comes just in time to squeeze in some last-minute personalized Christmas shopping, something that you couldn’t do with the old version of the app.

In the words of Shutterfly General Manager Karl Wiley, “Mobile commerce is now the new normal,” and Shutterfly doesn’t want to miss out on the new normal.

Over the last year or so Shutterfly has slowly been building up, acquiring galleries and companies and quietly making sure that it’s meeting its customer’s demands. Those of you who use Shutterfly know that it offers free, unlimited photo storage, in large part made possible by the fact that its main income stream stems from sale of products, not storage space. This app is yet another step in that direction.

With it, you’ll be able to access any and all photos stored on your phone, Instagram, Facebook, or Shutterfly’s servers and turn them into fun, personalized products (think key chains, mugs, iPhone cases, etc.). The app also brings with it some new print sizes, most notably 4×4 and 8×8 for those pesky square crop Instagram photos and panoramic prints to take advantage of iOS 6’s capabilities.

If any of this sounds like a good idea, or you just want some mobile photo product ordering capabilities at your fingertips, iOS users (for now Android users miss out on this one too) can download a copy from the iTunes store today.

Shutterfly for iPhone [iTunes App Store via TechCrunch]