Inkjet & Digital Printing

Konica Minolta expands with new wireless printing solutions

Wednesday 11. February 2015 - Changing work conditions bring about fundamental changes to the collaboration among co-workers; information and documents need to be available everywhere. Enhanced flexibility is what this mobile workforce most depends on; and this in turn is causing a significant increase in the use of smart mobile devices.

This goes along with an urgent requirement for simpler and more straightforward mobile printing with reliable security. Over half of smartphones and tablet owners expect to be printing from their mobiles by 2015.(1) To meet mobile users’ expectations, Konica Minolta has expanded its wireless capabilities with four new Wireless Printing Solutions: AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Android Printing Framework and Mopria Print Service. With the support of Near Field Communication (NFC), mobile printing is even faster: users can print by tapping their mobile terminal on the Konica Minolta printing system. Furthermore, not only wireless environments need mobile printing. That is why Konica Minolta enabled its printing systems with easy ways to deliver a wireless environment, such as wireless LAN Access Point Mode and WiFi Direct.
With today’s extensive availability of technological innovations, knowledge workers are increasingly mobile. Most office employees no longer need to spend their entire working time within the company they work for but can frequently work from location of their choice. IDC predicts the mobile worker population to reach 1.3 billion by 2015, representing 37.2% of the total workforce.2 To meet the demands of the increasing mobile workforce, professional cloud and mobile printing applications should provide reliable secure printing, offer flexible job submission and support a choice of mobile devices as part of an organisation’s BYOD policy. A survey amongst Germany end users regarding the question why they do not print from their smartphones, wireless computer, or other mobile device, resulted in that over 24% replied that their mobile device does not support printing capabilities. Over 18% answered that it takes too much time to print from their handheld device and that they do not understand how to print to their printer from their mobile device.3 These results show how important it is to offer users printing opportunities matching different working styles, improving customers’ efficiency, ensuring a high compatibility and offering an easy kind of usage without any explanations. With AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Konica Minolta Print Service and Mopria Print Service Konica Minolta exactly meets those requirements.
Konica Minolta bizhub devices are AirPrint certified so that customers can print high-quality images and documents directly from applications without the need to install separate drivers. AirPrint is an Apple technology which is built into iOS devices such as Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as OS X devices such as the iMac and Macbook Pro.
Provided by Google, Google Cloud Print (GCP) allows users to print to a Google account registered printer, using a network-compatible device without installing the printer driver on the device. It is also possible to share printers with other employees. GCP is supported by iOS, Android OS, Windows, and Mac OS.
The Konica Minolta Print Service – based on the Android Printing Framework – is a plug-in which does not appear as an app on the device. Android users (with OS 4.4 KitKat or later) can print to many Konica Minolta devices, without the need for third party apps or additional print drivers.
Mopria, an alliance between main mobile and printer providers, developed the Mopria Print Service plug-in, which lets consumers print directly from devices running Android 4.4 or later. Documents such as photographs, web pages and PDF files can be printed easily via wireless network to Mopria-certified output devices.
For environment deprived of wireless network, Konica Minolta’s multifunction printer can act as a wireless Access Point Mode delivering a wireless network which is separated from the company network, ensuring a full security. Another possibility is to activate WiFi Direct on the printing system, for an instantaneous pairing with the mobile terminal.
Besides, with the support of NFC, the output device and the mobile terminal are very easily connected for a direct printing. The mobile user is not bothered with any printer registration or network set up.
“By running these technologies from a Konica Minolta multifunction device, customers will be able to directly print from their mobile terminal, in every environment, and without going through an external App nor a printer driver”, comments Julien Azzi, Product Manager Office Printing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. “Customers will enjoy a greater flexibility with our new mobility solutions, and new possibilities in their daily business”.