The Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium (MIPC), an industry group developing solutions and implementation guidelines for printing images captured with camera phones, today announced their first set of guidelines for the mobile and printing industry.
This first set of the MIPC Implementation Guidelines sets a common standard which all mobile and printer manufacturers can follow and implement into their products. The guidelines leverage existing connectivity technology standards and solutions, such as Bluetooth wireless technology, printing from memory cards and PictBridge. As a result, consumers can expect seamless interoperability between a broad base of mobile phones and printers. Any products that follow the MIPC technical guidelines will work with each other in that applicable technology.
“We are proud to deliver the first industry-wide guidelines for printing images from mobile phones, said Ramon Garrido, Chairman of the MIPC and Program Director at HP. “Consumers can be more confident that their mobile phones and printers will indeed work together. The common guidelines make development of solutions for mobile phone printing as easy and reliable as possible.”
The “Mobile Imaging Report” (October 11, 2004) forecasts that roughly 370 million digital cameras will be sold in 2005, more than three-quarters (76.29%) of which will be embedded in mobile phones. The dominance of camera-phones, the report said, will impact the imaging market in a variety of ways that will benefit the industry.
The MIPC, which includes leading handset makers and printer manufacturers, was launched last February at PMA 2004, the Photo Marketing Association international convention and trade show. The MIPC was set up to drive standards for providing consumers with a simple and spontaneous experience when printing images taken with camera phones. Since then, the Consortium’s members have collaborated on the development of these consumer printing guidelines. The MIPC’s recent addition of Korea Telecom Freetel to its Board will bring future focus on wireless infrastructure as it relates to imaging and printing solutions and applications.
(The first version of the MIPC Implementation Guidelines is now publicly available and will be provided upon request via the following link: http://www.mobileprinting.org/developers. A Plugfest event is planned for spring 2005 to enable interoperability testing of mobile phones and home printers that have been developed using the MIPC guideline. Detailed information on the Plugfest will be available at the MIPC website.)