Many people remember the difficulties of trying to print from a mobile device in recent years. Connecting a mobile device to a network printer was often confusing and sometimes simply didn’t work. From incompatible devices to broken or missing drivers, the experience was less than optimal. Clearly, there was room for the industry to innovate and innovate it did.
Samsung was a founding member of the Mopria Alliance, which sought to make mobile printing as easy as printing in the office by establishing a set of standards for the industry to use. This non-profit organization started out small, but its membership has grown from its original 4 founding members, to more than 20 printing brands, comprising over 100 million printers in use today.
With Android’s latest Oreo update, building upon the foundation of standards established by the Mopria Alliance, now approximately 97% of the world’s printers can seamlessly print with an Android enabled device.
Mopria Alliance Changes an Industry
As mobile phone usage kept increasing, so too did the need for a seamless mobile printing solution for consumers. There were too many different devices, operating systems, brands, drivers, and more, that often-made mobile printing an exercise in futility.
Samsung was unhappy with this situation, and continuously strove for innovations to make mobile printing easier. Thus, in 2013, alongside the other big players in the printing industry – HP, Canon and Xerox – who shared similar sentiments, Samsung set out on a shared journey and founded the Mopria Alliance, with an aim to reduce barriers to mobile printing.
The alliance moved quickly, seeing the Mopria Print Service for Android first released in October 2014, a plug-in that enables printing from Android devices to Mopria-certified printers and multifunction printers (MFPs).
Samsung Printing’s Leadership Role
With an extensive background in printing and an unrivaled expertise for consumer and enterprise electronics, Samsung Printing continues to take a leadership role within the Mopria Alliance.
Samsung’s goals are to accelerate mobile printing growth and to strengthen industry-wide standards to cover cloud printing, scanning, security and MDM (mobile device management).
This effort to provide both enterprise and personal solutions, regardless of printer brand, across the industry, proves Samsung’s commitment to reducing printing barriers for everyone.
The Ubiquitous Samsung Print Service
Samsung has also developed its own Android mobile printing tool, Samsung Print Service (SPS), which has received full Mopria Print Library certification, and extends Samsung’s leadership in driverless, device-agnostic mobile printing.
The Samsung Print Service is compatible with all phones and tablets running Android 4.4 or above.
Samsung provides full support for Android, Apple and Windows devices, as well as cloud printing standards, including Google Cloud Print. And with full Mopria certification, this marks the first time any company in the printing industry has received such extensive mobile printing certifications.
In March of this year, Samsung released the latest edition of SPS, version 3.02, which improved inter-brand print operability, and enhanced companion tutorials and support mechanisms to better explain to new users how easy mobile printing really is.
The next time you find yourself seamlessly printing from your mobile device, perhaps you can stop and take a second to appreciate the industry-wide cooperation and innovation that led to this seamless printing experience.