The current breathtaking evolution in the capability of mobile devices, driven by increases in processing power, touch screens, memory sizes and data rates is resulting in many of the things we traditionally do with PCs and laptops migrating to handheld devices.

Clearly, nobody would buy a PC that was not capable of printing and yet the one demand that has remained unresolved, perhaps I should say — ignored — is mobile printing.

Oxford-based Software Imaging has been producing printing software for manufacturers of printers and copiers for 20 years. From the first day I received e-mails on my smartphone I asked myself: “Why doesn’t my phone print?”

So why has the mobile industry so badly failed to solve the issue of mobile printing? In my view, it is because the mobile industry does not understand printing.

Printing to a portable but known printer is easily achieved because there is a known mobile device connecting with a known type of printer.

The data transfer can be serviced with either USB or Bluetooth with a single printer-driver. The far more challenging requirement is for the mobile device to print to any printer at any location.

In traditional printing scenarios between a PC and a printer there is a defined method of connection. This means it is possible to implement a limited set of drivers to accommodate printers normally in use.

The mobile printing requirement is different as the user will not know what printer will be available and what type of connection can be used.

The new Cloud Print and e-mail print services, as advertised on TV, are also not the answer on their own.

If I am standing next to a printer in an office, why would I want my document to go up into the cloud and back to the printer if, in a fraction of that time, I could print it directly? Besides, many companies will not accept this on security grounds.

Most of the solutions currently available are application specific and support limited printer types, only print some types of content, such as photographs, or have only one method of printer connection such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

This could lead to a user having many different printing applications on their device for the different scenarios they may encounter.

I do not believe this is a viable way forward for most users and such a fragmented approach will not generate a universal market for mobile printing.

The solution is to have just one print utility on the mobile device that can print any type of file content, print to any type of printer and use any form of connectivity such as Wi-Fi, 3G, USB or the Cloud.

In the near future, I believe such a print solution will become commonplace on all mobile devices. We will expect to use our tablets and mobiles for viewing and printing documents so we can leave our laptops and cables behind.

At Software Imaging we have taken up the challenge and come up with a solution based on our long printing experience, combined with our view of the key criteria for success in the mobile printing market.

First, we recognised the need to print any type of content from the mobile device, from Word, Excel and pdf files to PowerPoint slides, e-mails, photographs, web pages, contacts and calendars.

Next, the experience and performance had to be similar to the benchmark set by PC-based printing — high-speed, high-quality and accurate.

The key to good mobile printing is maximising the availability of printers, wherever the user may be.

To achieve this, we have implemented multiple types of printer connection, along with a simple and automatic printer discovery mechanism to find printers anywhere or to connect via any Cloud print service.

So we have made the job of finding and using printers easy and intuitive, with two or three clicks by the user all that is needed.

Finally, it is vital for any mobile printing solution to be power efficient to minimise the impact on battery life and we have implemented a number of techniques to ensure high performance with low power.

It has been exciting for Software Imaging to deliver on the promises of ‘Any Content, to Any Printer by Any Connectivity’ but with the help of a wonderful engineering team in Oxford, we have achieved something that was difficult but worthwhile.

We are now at the stage where we are licensing our software to some of the largest mobile and tablet manufacturers in the world.

From now on, the use of mobiles and tablets to undertake the job of the laptop will hopefully grow quickly in all walks of life and all smart, connected mobile devices will come with mobile printing as a standard feature.

n This page is co-ordinated by Oxford Innovation, www.oxin.co.uk