Wish to print a business document or a train/air ticket on the move? Not a problem anymore, even if you do not have access to a personal computer. You can just email it from your smart phone or netbook and have it printed, through web-enabled printers.
‘If you can e-mail it, you can print it,' this is the mantra behind HP's ePrint, a range of web-connected printers unveiled here recently.
The e-all-in-one printers for home and business that start at Rs.7,570 also allow consumers and businesses quick and easy access to popular digital content through a web-based printing platform with HP applications; store documents or files in the cloud and print when needed; and manage/customise their printing through the HP ePrint Centre.
Each web-connected printer will be given a unique email address that allows senders to deliver a print the same way as they send an email. Currently, popular file formats such as JPEG, PDF and Microsoft Office are supported, with additional file types to be added in future.
Briefing a group of journalists flown in as HP guests for the Asia Pacific launch of the printers at Shaw Studios here, top executives of the company described it as the “future of printing.”
“We are revolutionising printing to make web-empowered, cloud-enabled printing the new industry standard,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice-president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. Terming them content devices rather than printers, he said: “We know that customers want an easy way to print their content, anywhere, anytime. We are making that a reality by giving people the power to print from any web-connected device — smartphone, netbook and more.”
HP believes that this is the right time for the web printing revolution. “It is estimated that there will be more than 700 million Internet households and one billion smartphones by 2013. Of these, 50 per cent of the connected houses and 35 per cent of the smartphones will be in Asia Pacific,” said John Solomon, senior vice-president, Imaging and Printing Group, Asia Pacific and Japan, HP.
With HP ePrint, users can schedule the delivery of prints. This way, customers could even have favourite pages from their newspapers delivered. They can have access to print applications such as Web Sudoku, Quick Forms, DreamWorks, Snapfish Photos and Google Calendar — all at the touch of a finger through a TouchSmart Screen.
Stephen Nigro, senior vice-president, Inkjet and Web Solutions Business, Imaging and Printing Group, indicated that HP was currently in talks with a few companies in India to provide more applications and customised content relevant to the region.
In response to queries on security and privacy concerns, HP officials said the four levels of protection, including a random email address, a spam filter and a protection mode to restrict the senders and people authorised to print, would keep spam at bay.
