It could be a good solution but for me the overhead is too high and it lacks many of the benefits of having the data in the cloud. + what happens when there is a disaster, the insurance doesn't cover lost memories.
Specifically about Google, I agree that Google+ Photos (or however this is called) is a strange beast. But it shares storage with Google Drive and in fact Google Drive photos are accessible from Photos. So I use only Google Drive folders for backup. I also believe that in case Google (or any other company of that scale) chooses to shut down a major service it will give a fair notice (don't forget it has business users as well). As for Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, Box, MS... it seems like a core product.
When I considered starting my own company in the photo sharing/storage I did some research of the field. Ignoring the my business related conclusions, there is one thing I learned as a consumer:
-- You shouldn't trust your photos with these companies --
People store photos to last for long long time while most of these companies' lifespan is much shorter. The best outcome would be spending time, money and nerves on porting data from place to place.
I hate saying this but I'd go with established companies that either have a sustainable business model around photos/storage (Amazon, Dropbox, Apple) or have deep enough pockets to make up for it (Microsoft, Google). I probably forgot some but you get the idea.
I agree, one of the most important factors in buying customized products is getting a feeling of what you're getting. This way the user is more likely to make the purchase and even more likely to be satisfied with the product once it's delivered.
I'm in the field myself (see profile) and although the website looks nice I don't see how it's different than any of the existing services.
Here are my $0.02:
1. PRICE - The prices are way too high. Especially given that all established print services offer huge discounts these days. Even our Printy.pics iOS app offers lower prices + 40% discount.
2. Registration - I would prefer to register when I need to (before payment) and not when I'm asked to. The common practice for most web print apps is to allow product creation and require registration (if at all) on checkout. I guess you should do some A/B testing to see which approach maximizes LTV.
3. Why .io?
On a general note, it is very hard to compare print products. There can be huge quality differences and for someone who isn't an expert in the domain it would be hard to tell if the price is worth it.
It's great to see how photo storage solutions get faster, prettier and cheaper. Now it's time to make them smarter. Most people I know feel swamped with photos as there are no decent tools to clear this photo-mess.
100%. Photos are here to stay while most startups are not. As much as I hate saying it,being a start-up founder myself, I'd go for Google, Yahoo, Amazon or a more backup-oriented startup.
1. It sounds like this book can be summarized in a practical blog post or a series of posts
2. Is using the term crisis so many times really necessary?