Snapshot replication is highly useful in certain situations where static data is sufficient.
With snapshot replication, a snapshot of data is taken and copied to subscribers.
This data is not updated until the next snapshot is applied.
If you use snapshot replication,
you should not modify the data on the subscriber
because it will be overwritten when the next snapshot is applied.
The types of applications that can benefit from snapshot replication include the following:
* Price lists that are distributed to remote store locations
Typically, updating prices once per night is quite sufficient.
* Lookup tables that do not require frequent updates
Lookup tables typically have fairly static data.
Other applications can benefit from snapshot replication as well.
However, when updates to data need to be replicated frequently,
transactional or merge replication is more useful.
Source: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Companion Book