UPDATED 12:44 EDT / OCTOBER 07 2010

Motorola Demos Mobile Printing via Android App: CTIA 2010

Motorola is going hard with Android, demonstrating a new app for printing documents to a number of printers. The app is called Motoprint, and it’s currently in beta. Content on your phone can be sent to any PostScript printer, as long as it’s on the same LAN as your phone. Supported documents include Microsoft Office, PDF and graphics.

It’s a step up from Bluetooth sending to supported printers, requiring less set up and leveraging the mobile apps as primary points of communication. Virtualizing correspondence in this way pushes a lot more activity to the cloud, and streamlines interactions amongst devices.

Demoed at CTIA today, PCWorld has a firsthand look at the upcoming Motoprint:

“I saw Motoprint’s user interface, and it’s pretty basic. It isn’t integrated into other apps. You open the Motoprint app, select your document, select your printer, choose options, and print. There’s a neat Google map view of all your local printers, which might be relevant to a campus-wide Wi-Fi network.”

It looks like it could be a useful tool for smartphone users, especially if it can integrate on a level where it doesn’t require too many stand-alone operations. That’s one major benefit of Android apps, as they have the ability access each other for simplified tasks to be carried out.

Interestingly enough, the Motoprint will be available through its own app market, called Shop4Apps, but will be available in the Android Market as well. Smart move, to branch the app across multiple shop portals, including its own. A number of manufacturers and wireless providers, from Samsung to Sprint, Verizon and others, are pooling Android apps through their own storefront.

It’s also interesting that Motorola is headed into the printing sector for an app launch. It seems to be a decided area of interest, particularly for printer makers like HP and Xerox, both of which have their own mobile printing initiatives. Beyond printer manufacturers, other media-centric creation tools are layering in this type of functionality as well, and mobile devices will become a major point of integration to empower Microsoft and Apple on these fronts.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU