Printing for the smartphone age - straight from handset to printer via email, courtesy of HP

Printing from mobile devices like smartphones is about to get easier thanks to HP, according to the New York Times.

On its website the paper reports that HP - which recently purchased failing smartphone company Palm, and its smartphone operating system WebOS - is making a range of internet-connected printers which will be able to print documents which are emailed to the printer itself, via its own email address.

The idea is that owners of Blackberrys, iPhones, iPads and the like will be able to send print jobs to the web-enabled printers, without having to transfer to PC or mess around with networks or printer addresses - just remember your printer's email address and you can print to it any time you feel like, from any internet-connected device.

The new web-enabled printers, with their own email addresses, touchscreens and print-by-email functionality, could change the predicted future of print. With industry analysts pointing to the prevalence of hand-held devices and suggesting that the PC plus printer form-factor could be on its way out, there have been question marks over whether HP, which has its roots and much of its profits in printers, would be hit by the change.  But if HP shifts more than 15 million of the devices by next year, as it expects to, it will protect one of its most important revenue streams.

The new printers are expected to range from $99 to $400 in price, and will also have an app store similar to the Apple app store, enabling consumers to purchase specially developed applications which utilise simple web printing.