5. Printers: The Future

Since PMA 08 did not give us a really good look at what’s coming for those of us that need printers for ourselves (instead of for retail stores), I’d like to take a look at what I expect to see more of this year:

Wireless is definitely going to continue increasing in popularity. Wireless N will maintain its popularity due to its combination of range and speed (240 - 300 Megabits per second), although we may see the limited range but faster Wireless USB (480 Megabits per second) gain some popularity with peripherals such as printers.

Pictbridge and similar camera to printer styled printers, that don’t need a computer to print, will also continue to grow in popularity and fall in price. When you load photos from a camera into your computer, there’s a natural urge to edit every one of them. Just because you can edit every one of them. Usually, there’s only a couple that really need editing, so direct printing can be a huge timesaver for those of us that just can’t avoid tinkering with something once its in our computer.

Stay tuned for more news and analysis on PMA 2008.