August 20, 2007
Hewlett Introduces a Web Feature to Make Document Printing Mobile
By JOHN MARKOFF
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/technology/20print.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=d74dd5847bf85d0b&ex=1187755200&pagewanted=print
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 18 Hoping to alleviate a frustration of mobile
computing, Hewlett-Packard has quietly introduced a free service designed
to make it possible to print documents on any printer almost anywhere in
the world. Cloudprint, which was developed over a period of several months
by a small group of H.P. Labs researchers, makes it possible to share,
store and print documents using a mobile phone.
The service emerged as the result of a conversation begun at the laboratory
this year over how the computer and printing company might benefit from the
introduction of the Apple iPhone, according to Patrick Scaglia, H.P.s
director for Internet and computing platforms technologies at the research lab.
The world is going to flip, Mr. Scaglia said. We want to ride the wave
of the Web.
The underlying idea is to unhook physical documents from a users computer
and printer and make it simple for travelers to take their documents with
them and use them with no more than a cellphone and access to a local printer.
The service requires users to first print their documents to H.P. servers
connected to the Internet. The system then assigns them a document code,
and transmits that code to a cellphone, making it possible to retrieve and
print the documents from any location.
Later, using the SMS message the service has sent to the users cellphone,
it is possible to retrieve the documents by entering the users phone
number and a document code on the Cloudprint Web site. The documents can
then be retrieved as a PDF, ready to be printed at a nearby printer.
The service will include a directory service that will show the location of
publicly available printers on Google Maps. The system currently works with
any Windows-connected printer. A Macintosh version is also planned.
The strategy is an extension of a broader, and all-important, H.P. strategy
of indirectly creating a business that will foster the sale of
Hewlett-Packard ink and supplies. The strategy has been working well. On
Thursday, the company said operating profits from its printing division,
most of it from ink and supplies, rose 11 percent in its third quarter from
a year earlier.
The service is the first of a series of initiatives the company will take
in the coming months to increasingly unhook printing from desktop
computers, Mr. Scaglia said. Later this month H.P. plans to announce a
partnership with a major retailer that will offer a variety of
Internet-connected printing services at hundreds of locations around the
country.
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George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu