HP’e ePrint cloud-based push bypasses drivers, USB cables and network ports by giving every HP printer an email address.
If you can email it, you can print it. That’s the mantra behind HP’e new ePrint strategy, which will see every an email address given to every new HP new consumer and business printer.
Customers will be able to access the printers through HP’s cloud gateway. Content can be emailed directly to the printer, or an email message with attachments can be forwarded to the printer’s address.
Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice president for HP’s Imaging and Printing Group, says that ePrinting also means that increasingly mobile PC users will no longer need to have the right driver for a particular printer.
“These days you have multiple devices, and having the correct driver for each of these is a major pain point” Joshi said. “When you buy a new HP printer you will register it with HP’s ePrint centre and get an email address for the printer. This makes the whole thing about what device and OS do I have, and what driver do I need, totally irrelevant.”
HP also appears to be targetting the iPad, given the lack of direct printing on Apple’s magical and revolutionary device, with several demonstrations being conducted on an iPad.
The service works with documents in PDF and Microsoft Office formats as
well as JPEG images. Other file types such as the OpenDocument XML format of OpenOffice are not currently supported, although HP spokesman told APC that
“we have a roadmap and over time we will be expanding the types of
documents we support.”
The new wave of printers will also run HP ‘print apps’. The first of
these to be released in Australia will be HP’s new Photosmart Wireless
e-All-in-One, which launches in July at $129.
David Flynn is attending HP’s Regional ePrint launch in Hong Kong as a guest of HP.