HP Unveils New Features for A3 Printers

HP Inc. has equipped its A3 printer family with new security, mobility, management, and software development capabilities, and rolled out new business printers, MFPs, and scanners.

The slew of announcements coincided with the start of Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP’s Reinvent World Partner Forum, now underway in Chicago.

“HP is empowering our partners to deliver amazing experiences for customers by reinventing printing for an on-demand world,” said Enrique Lores, president of imaging and printing, in a press statement. “As the cyber landscape evolves and the path of work transforms, we will drive partner success with innovative new services and solutions for printing easily and securely, enabling increased services and revenue opportunities.”

To strengthen the security of HP’s expanding A3 print portfolio, the company has introduced a new feature called HP Connection Inspector that continually monitors a print device’s network link. If it spots anything suspicious, the technology both blocks the activity and triggers a reboot to initiate self-healing procedures via HP’s Sure Start technology, all without human intervention.

The first in what will be a series of security analytics solutions developed by HP Labs, HP Connection Inspector will be available to existing as well as new HP printers via a firmware update that will ship at an unspecified date later this year.

The new mobility technology unveiled today, called HP Roam and slated to ship next spring, allows users to print from PCs and mobile devices to any Roam-enabled printer via the cloud without first installing drivers or establishing connections. Users can create print jobs anytime as well with the new technology—drawing on embedded GPS and Bluetooth functionality, the service’s mobile app will automatically prompt them to release pending jobs as soon as they come within 20 feet of a Roam-compatible printer.

According to HP, thousands of printers at hotels, libraries, and airports will eventually support the new service, allowing mobile users to print when away from the office. The system requires verification via PIN codes or ID cards to ensure that only authorized users can print and retrieve documents.

Also coming in the spring is a new 2.0 version of HP’s Smart Device Services (SDS) administration offering. The refreshed release, which will run on existing HP management software, includes a predictive analytics feature that anticipates part failures; enhanced diagnostics for engine breakdowns, unresponsive printers, and scanner dust issues; and upgraded data collection and billing functionality, among other new features.

Designed specifically for HP partners, the new Solutions Hub announced today is a cloud and mobile-oriented SDK that enables developers to build customized workflows around printers and MFPs for customers in the healthcare, legal, and financial services verticals, among others. It too will ship in spring 2018.

HP also introduced two new color A3 printer and MFP platforms equipped with the vendor’s high-speed, PageWide stationary print head technology, Connection Inspector, and SDS 2.0, at Reinvent today, as well as new workflow scanners.

HP launched its A3 print portfolio a year ago at its 2016 partner conference on the same day it revealed its blockbuster $1.05 billion acquisition of Samsung’s printer business. It dramatically expanded that product line this April when it shipped 54 new SKUs, including LaserJet and PageWide models. Those rollouts and the offerings announced today are all part of an ongoing strategic effort by HP to seize a share of a global copier market worth tens of billions of dollars annually.

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