Johannesburg, 11 Mar 2003
There`s great potential news for users of HP and Nokia technology if developments around Bluetooth and wireless printing at HP Labs are anything to go by.
The companies confirmed today that they`re working to develop a printing application for Nokia`s "Series 60" cellphones (such as the Nokia 7650 or 3650 models) based on the Bluetooth wireless communication standard. The end result should enable consumer and business users to print content from their phones on HP Bluetooth-enabled printers.
While the application is still in development at HP, initial indications point to it allowing users to print photos, multimedia message service (MMS) messages with images, e-mail, SMS messages, notepad files, contacts and calendar items from Series 60 phones.
The operation itself would be quite simple. Users would select various types of content from the phone and send it to an HP Bluetooth-enabled printer via the Basic Print Profile (BPP). In doing so, the ubiquitous cellphone would be transformed beyond verbal communication into something that gave users a new level of wireless convenience and freedom.
"This is all part of our strategy to accelerate the delivery of quality mobile and wireless printing applications and services for customers," says Issam Essadiqi, the imaging and printing group sales manager for Africa at HP.
"If you think about it, printing from a cellphone is a natural extension of what people want to do with digital information. Whether you want to print e-mails or photos, these capabilities may be possible through the solution currently being explored by HP Labs."
The potential adoption of the Bluetooth standard will mean that people`s mobile experience will be significantly simplified, given the convenience, speed and reliability that the standard offers. Extending that to a printing application of this nature would reflect the communication industry`s ability to develop services that are flexible enough to suit users` needs and lifestyles.
"To print from Series 60 phones, the user first selects a content type (image or MMS message for example) and then selects a specific item of that type (for example, a couple of images or an MMS message with an image attachment)," explains Essadiqi.
"When satisfied with the selection, the user then selects the BPP-enabled Bluetooth printer they wish to use. This could come from either a list of saved printers or by actively detecting nearby Bluetooth BPP devices. Once the device is selected and verified to be within range and that it supports BPP, the formatted data would be sent to the printer while the transmission status is shown."
Additional information on mobile printing activities is available at www.hp.com/go/mobileprinting. For more information on HP`s other solutions and activities in Africa, surf to www.hp.com/africa.
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