This story appears in the
May 2002 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Want to print those e-mails piling up on your cell phone or PDA?
Bluetooth printers promise to expedite wireless printing around
offices. The next challenge is to turn the Internet into a
universal "printer cable" so you can get hard copies from
your handheld when you're on the road, says IDC analyst
Jennifer Thorwart.
Zenographics, for one, is building alliances for a free
MobilePrint subscription service to let you redirect your e-mails,
attachments and Web content to Internet-connected printers and fax
machines in locations such as hotels and print shops. For now, you
can log on to the company's Web site (http://mp.zeno.com) and
send your content (via an ActiveX client download) to a fax machine
or printer attached to a PC you control.
Electronics for Imaging (EFI) is also signing sites up for its
budding PrintMe Networks. A free user account at www.printme.com
lets you send content to PrintMe-enabled printers, which can be
achieved with either an embedded chip or a PrintMe terminal
attached to the printer. Sir Speedy has already launched the
service in Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City
and San Diego. EFI expects Marriott Hotels and many other locations
to be online by year-end.
It will take at least that long before wireless print sites are
common, says Thorwart, but IDC research indicates that nearly half
of all business travelers would potentially use them.
Erik P. Nelson is a freelance writer in San Francisco. His
work has appeared in Profit and M-Business
magazines.
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