Datamax Portable Printing

Datamax Dialog
by Timmy Thermal

We’ve written about Datamax-O’Neil’s products and their compatibility with iOS, specifically their Apex i series, in the past. But, today we’re going to talk about where Datamax-O’Neil sees the future of enterprise printing needs going. The short version? …Smartphones.

According to Datamax-O’Neil senior product manager, John Murphy, more and more people are using their everyday smartphones and tablets on the job and integrating them with their portable printing solutions. However, this “phenomenon,” as he calls it, has also made the resellers’ and integrators’ jobs more difficult due to more options for operating systems added by Android and iOS.

“In the past, resellers and integrators dealt with a limited number of hardware providers and a small number of O/S implementations, whereas now there are a whole new set of considerations,” he says. “There are new manufacturers involved; many of them are not familiar with the AIDC industry or its requirements. The traditional suppliers now offer both traditional O/S solutions, as well as Android and iOS enabled devices.”

Adoption of iOS and Android has become so widespread in the enterprise market, in fact, that standards have had to change dramatically, especially in the demand for image-related printing, as well as the security of connections.

“With the adoption of real time operating systems such as Android and iOS, there is a higher frequency of image-related printing. Also, because mobile printing devices are involved in financial transactions more frequently than in the past, secure connections, encrypted data and compliance to the latest communication standards have become a basic requirement for mobile printing devices. Combine the new image-related printing requirements with the secure communication requirements, and you can see where the pressure to contain development and manufacturing costs has greatly increased for print solution providers.”

As expected, the desire from technology users for their devices to “just work” has extended itself into the smartphone market as well, and therefore, into the mobile printing business.

“Customers do not want to have to think about their equipment, they just want it to work. Ease of integration and device management of critical components are essential. With user requirements moving toward open architectures (Android, iOS), support for integrating these solutions has become critical.”

For more information on what Datamax-O’Neil has been up to, check them out in Dialogue where you can see the full interview with Murphy and much more. And don’t forget that MIDCOM services and sells many models of Datamax-O’Neil printers including thermal label and mobile, so give us a call at (800) 643-2664 or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!