Trying to further woo the business sector, Samsung has revealed details of its cloud-based printing solution at CeBIT 2014 in Hannover, Germany. Samsung Cloud Print tries to take the hassle, not to mention the wires and cables, out of the printing process, offering speed and convenience to businesses, particularly small and medium-sized ones or SMBs.
Cloud printing is becoming in vogue. Android 4.4 actually added support for printing via cloud-hosted services, for example, Google Cloud Print. Samsung is now trying to add its own proprietary solution into the mix that, unsurprisingly, works only with its new line of printers.
The Samsung Cloud Print system is made up of two parts, the Samsung Cloud Print app running on a smart device and an NFC-enabled Samsung printer, the latest of which has just also been unveiled. The way Samsung describes the printing process may sound a bit complex, but it is like any other cloud printing solution. Simply send a document to the printer via Samsung’s service. Users can also choose which printer to send the document to and a smart device can pair with up to 20 printers via NFC. Samsung is also offering added security features via Samsung KNOX. For devices that don’t have KNOX installed, the documents sent via the cloud will be encrypted instead.
Compatible Samsung printers include the Xpress C1860 series color laser printers and the Xpress M2885 series mono printers, which will be available next month. The companion app, on the other hand will be available for free first on Google Play Store starting in June, while the iOS version will see a release later this year. Samsung Cloud Print will first launch in Korea, the US, and European countries this year.
SOURCE: Samsung
Cloud-based-everything seems to be the mode du jour for monetizing the weaknesses in mobile operating systems (e.g. my Samsung Galaxy Note can print, but only to a Samsung printer). I have 4 perfectly good HP printers on my LAN which are happily supported by Windows, but even HP doesn’t want me printing to them from my Android devices. I would think by version 4, Android would have native printing support no worse than old Windows XP. But alas, there seems to be no money in it.
BTW, who buys Samsung printers anyway? Isn’t that market owned by HP and Epson?
Good grief!