HP's new web printing converts bits into atoms - and bucks

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:05

Your IT - Home IT

Seeking to ride the wave of connected smartphone and tablet users in the Asia Pacific region (and globally), HP has formally launched its new printers that can receive email and print it, along with attachments, while also offering premium content and cloud infrastructure that can store and share content, changing the way users print from a range of devices and adding to the reasons why consumers buy printers. Is it truly a revolution?

Although HP has already announced its new web ready printers, today marked the formal launch of the new range in the Asia Pacific region at an event at the new Shaw Studios in Hong Kong, which I am attending as HP's guest.

Despite concerns raised online about printers being subject to printed ink-wasting spam, something that was not addressed during the initial press launch (and something I'll definitely be enquiring about as the day progresses), the printers themselves are the new vanguard in HP's desire to remain at the forefront of the printer market.

The ability to print via email to a unique printer address is such a simple and 'revolutionary' idea, one wonders why no-one thought of it earlier, although having widespread Internet connectivity and the ability to create a robust cloud infrastructure to handle it all were key factors in the technology being able to succeed in the market place.

Part of the simplicity factor lies in no longer needing to worry about whether your printer supports your device's operating system, no longer needing to worry about drivers and no longer needing to worry whether your device has a USB or even native printing capability, as is one of the concerns with the iPhone and the iPad.

All you need to do is to be able to send an email with your chosen attachment to your printer's email address, and literally within a few seconds, and certainly less than a minute, your document will print, no matter where it was sent from around the world.

As noted, we're yet to discover how HP will ensure that spammers don't discover these addresses and relentlessly spam printers with ads chewing through litres of ink and reams of paper, (somewhat reminiscent of those faxed spamvertisements anyone with a fax machine has almost certainly seen), but presumably this has been thought of and sorted by, for example, only accepting emails from a strict list of sender addresses - more details to come.

HP is committing to delivering this technology in all its printers from US $99 upwards, whether inkjet or laser, whether consumer or enterprise, and is also bringing premium content to the hands of users, whether in the form of news, recipes, colouring in pages for children from major movie tie-ins and more - all without needing to interact with a PC, as each printer can be connected to the Internet.

More printer apps can be downloaded to the printer, with an SDK and an open API, with HP wanting to appeal to as many developers as possible. The expected massive base of connected printers should be very attractive to developers and companies wishing to deliver content to consumers, and puts HP in a prime position to sell more printers and ink than ever.

At first glance, HP's new range of printers and the web printing capability, along with access to premium content, looks like it will be a stunning success and popular in the marketplace.

Clearly, consumers will have to become comfortable with increasing their volume of printing and paying for ink on what will presumably be a more regular basis, but even without acting upon the desire to access and print out 'premium' content, the ability to print via email is unquestionably compelling.

So, if you're looking to upgrade or buy a new printer, it's certainly worth considering a web-printing enabled HP - make sure you get one with this capability, as there will be a crossover period of a few months were old stock clears the channel and essentially all new HP printers above US $99 come with web printing and app support as standard.

It will also be interesting to see how HP's many printing competitors will actively respond to HP's 'revolutionary' printing innovation and initiative.

One of HP's executives talked of HP converting bits of information into atoms, and naturally, HP wants to turn those bits into profitable bucks for itself by adding real value to the printing equation.

I look forward to tracking the success of this new direction in print and expect it will be as successful as HP hopes it shall be.

What follows on subsequent pages is a blow-by-blow description of the initial launch event, so if you're interested, please read on to page two!