The world may not be flat, but it is clearly a tablet. At a recent digital printing conference, Phillip McCoog from HP presented a keynote on Printing Evolution in a World Dominated by Mobile Devices. He included some surprising statistics regarding penetration of tablet computers and mobile devices. (See http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/ and http://www.idc.com.) These statistics included the fact that tablet s will outsell notebook computers this year, and by 2015 tablets will exceed the combined sales of notebook and desktop computers, worldwide. He also pointed out that by the end of this year the number of mobile devices will exceed the population of the earth.
McCoog then went on to address printing in the future. According to McCoog, even with mobile devices, people will still print. They will just do it differently. In other words, the demise of the printed image is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
- The number of people with access to mobile devices will quadruple over the next decade.
- Mobile devices increase picture taking dramatically.
- Kids will print when they get older.
- People will print, discard the print, and then reprint.
- Mobile devices are making it easier to print.
- Online storage increase the amount of information available to print.
- Online computing expands the ability to create documents.
- Common standards for print vendors eliminate driver problems.
- Printers will evolve.
The printing industry is not standing still. To address printing needs in the future, they now have the Mopria Alliance. The goal of this alliance is to allow any device to easily use any printer. I hope it succeeds, because right now it is way too difficult to print from cell phones and tablet computers.
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I just bought an Epson wireless printer and it is quite easy to print from my phone. The quality of the print is very good. Don’t have a tablet yet but use my phone more than my laptop now. It’s just to easy.
Yes! I agree that it is way to difficult to print from my iPhone and iPad. I very much look forward to learning more from you about any tips on this topic. I despise having to power up my laptop or desktop PC every time I need to print an email attachment, e-tickets, coupons and more.
It’s very easy to print from my iPhone or iPad when I am in my home on my wireless network. I have an HP Officejet 6500 printer (all-in-one) that works great. Now, this is NOT printing a scrapbook or holiday cards, etc. but it does a fine job of printing documents, spreadsheets, emails, and even photos.