I’ve been looking at a whole host of mobile enterprise possibilities and one of the rather mundane areas is printing from mobile. I use the word ‘mundane’ there because frankly, printing isn’t that sexy.

But it’s something we all need to do now-and-again. Paper, unfortunately, sometimes is necessary.

So when you’re swanning around with your gorgeous iPad 2 or your all new PlayBook — or, if you’re using a smartphone — how do you print?

The answer?

We email it to a colleague. Or to a nearby secretary.

Yeah.

Rubbish solution.

Isn’t there something better out there? Well, I asked Carsten Mickeleit, CEO of mobile services firm Cortado, to give us an overview of their Cloud Printing solution.

First though, let’s get the background. Over to Carsten:

In terms of mobile, our view is Desktop as an App.

We deliver the full PC desktop experience to Tablets and Smartphones, but as a real application and not as a Windows screen. Our product is easy and fast to use, completely integrated with all the other device applications and your corporate environment.

One of our ‘Virtual Desktop Process’ offerings is Cloud Printing, which we built and are continuing to grow in co-operation with members of the Cloud Printing Alliance (the CPA).

Right, and you’re a big supporter of the Cloud Printing Alliance?

Yes, we launched the Cloud Printing Alliance with other founding members: Brother, Dell, Funkwerk, Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita and OKI. They all signed an alliance agreement with us to bring true mobile cloud printing to the market.

How does your approach to Cloud Printing work?

Cloud Printing is a real technical challenge and we believe that we have the leading solution compared to most of our competitors who only have a very limited approach meaning their products are limited to a specific: printer, device, apps or documents, or to specific location.

We’ve created an application that allows you to print wherever you are to whatever printer you would like to use.

However, this is just the beginning for us with the support of the Cloud Printing Alliance members to complete the driver list, and the support of the device manufacturers to provide our app on their stores/phones/devices we are aiming to create a real impact in both the enterprise and consumer worlds.

We realise we cannot do this alone, so we do need the feedback of our users to be able to provide the best possible user experience.

We are working very hard to convince hot spot providers to host a printer in their network and offer printing to their customers and if we do our job right, mobile printing will be possible nearly everywhere and much more easily compared to a PC.

Well, bring it on. We’re looking forward to bring able to print stuff anywhere! Where can we go for more information?

You can find out more about our enterprise services (to mobile-enable your enterprise environment) at our site, Cortado.com and you can find out more about the Cloud Printing Alliance at www.cloud-printing-alliance.com.

Thanks Carsten!

Related posts:

1. Nokia reveals mobile ad alliance
2. Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, on Orange’s Social Life service
3. Star Alliance launches flight status alert service by text

This non-clamshell alternative to the Rambler has a better display but otherwise similar features, including a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, and 1.3 megapixel camera.

Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting:
Got a bit of Monster Hunter on your brain? The immensely popular open world RPG/action game has finally made its way to the iTunes App Store, focusing on two things gamers love most: combat, and loot from combat. Take on gigantic beasts from the Monster Hunter universe in one-on-one battles, swiping and touching your way to victory. Grab the goods when the fight is over and use it to craft new items and armor, strengthening yourself for the battles to come. It’s definitely one of those “just one more battle” sort of games, even if you haven’t been bitten by the Monster Hunter bug yet!

MONSTER HUNTER Dynamic Hunting

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $4.99
Released: 2011-06-01 :: Category: Games

Free-Time:
Why focus on meetings, appointments, and other time-eating activities when you can focus on what matters most: your free time? This slick-looking app is sort of the inverse of a calendar program, where instead of tracking actual events, it tracks and displays the time between them, pulling data from your local scheduling app to bring it all together. Enter your usual work day, factoring in meals, sleep, and average waking and going to bed times, then share your free times with friends. Surprisingly great for productivity, especially for those who consider free time more important than non-free time!

Free-Time

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2011-05-28 :: Category: Productivity

This V That:
Visually explore two seemingly unrelated things in a smart, stylish app that’s all about comparing data for different parts of the world. For example: is there a relationship between coffee consumption and homicide rates? How about Olympic medalists versus number of Facebook users in different countries? There’s an app for that, and it’s This V That. Great for trivia enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys apps that raise as many questions as they ask.

This V That

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2011-05-24 :: Category: Entertainment

How2Play:
Ever wanted to learn to play the guitar? Piano? How2Play is a universal app that contains a number of lessons, courses, background tracks and sheet music available to help you accomplish your musical goals. The download features a number of starter lessons, complete with instructional videos, and allows you to easily grab lessons from How2Play’s website (around $6 per lesson) so you can hone your skills and learn to play specific songs.

How2Play

Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2011-05-13 :: Category: Music

OmmWriter:
The enemy of writing is the distraction, and with devices like portable gaming consoles and iPads floating around, an awesome game is never more than a few taps away. OmmWriter aims to help free your mind of the clutter by streamlining your writing experience with a simple layout and a keyboard designed for improved usability. Soothing sounds are available, or you can opt for silence, but the user-centric keyboard design is where the real strength lays.

OmmWriter for iPad

iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Buy Now: $4.99
Released: 2011-05-30 :: Category: Productivity

Apps mentioned in this post: Free-Time, How2Play, MONSTER HUNTER Dynamic Hunting, OmmWriter for iPad, This V That


About: Five for Friday: Week of June 3, 2011 is a post from 148Apps