Apple @ Work: How the iPhone forced the entire printing industry to adopt AirPrint

Apple @ Work is brought to you only by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that combines in one place professional-grade all the solutions needed to seamlessly and automatically use, manage and protect Apple devices in the workplace. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work effortlessly and affordably. Ask for your EXTRA TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.

If you worked in IT in the 2000s and early 2010s, you know that printer driver management was the worst part of the job and was a huge part of OS X development. Manufacturers delayed support for new OS X for months, and it was often just a nightmare. Then the iPhone and iPad came along and changed everything… a little.

About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed the company’s IT network from 2009 to 2021. With his experience in deploying and managing firewalls, switches, mobile device management system, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, 1000’s of Macs, and 1000’s of iPads, Bradley will highlight the ways Apple IT managers deploy, IT users deploy IT users supporting Apple devices, train Apple management methods. Apple can improve its products for IT departments.

When Apple introduced AirPrint in 2010, many business IT managers dismissed it. It looked like a consumer feature designed for printing photos at home with a $50 printer. As the iPhone and iPad entered the corporate world, something interesting happened. Managers started bringing their iPads to work and wanted to print PDFs, and they didn’t want to hear about drivers or IP addresses. They just wanted to hit “Print” and run it like it was done at home. Instead of Apple embracing the complex world of printer drivers, the entire industry had to embrace AirPrint.

The iPhone forced the industry to adapt

Apple is so popular now that AirPrint has become something that every printer vendor must support. In the early days, getting a multifunction business printer to work with the iPad was a nightmare for third-party apps and gateways. I used many of them, and they were junky. Today, the sheer volume of Apple devices used in the workplace has forced companies like HP, Canon, Xerox, and Ricoh to finally support AirPrint.

Over time, almost all MFPs have built in native AirPrint support. They had no choice. Not supporting AirPrint has been a non-starter for purchases and leases. This change did not only help mobile users. Ultimately it changed the way we treat Macs. We’ve moved from the era of getting a full driver for most of our printing to AirPrint becoming the standard printing process. No, not all use cases can use AirPrint, but it’s from AirPrint being an exception to the rule. You can rent a few Ricoh printers and use AirPrint right out of the box without touching the driver.

PaperCut and modern print stack

While AirPrint provided connectivity, it did not solve the business need for accounting, assignments, and security. This is where solutions like PaperCut fill the gap. PaperCut is a great example of Apple’s impact on business. It works best with macOS, but it’s much easier with iPad and iPhone with a configuration profile. It’s easy enough for end users to install, but it gives IT the control it needs.

In a modern setup, you don’t manually add printers. You remove the configuration profile, log in with your SSO, and you’re up and running. This profile tells the iOS device or Mac exactly where the printer lines are. The user steps up, hits print, and the job goes to the virtual queue. They release it from the printer by tapping the badge or with a simple pin. It’s seamless.

Finish it

We often talk about how Apple revolutionized mobile device management, but we rarely give them credit for fixing print. I don’t just manage printer drivers today. 100% AirPrint. By forcing the industry to adopt a driverless standard, they saved IT managers everywhere the pain of printer-specific drivers, and made macOS development more seamless. It took a while to get here, but the combination of native AirPrint hardware and software like PaperCut has finally made business printing a solved problem.

Apple @ Work is brought to you only by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that combines in one place professional-grade all the solutions needed to seamlessly and automatically use, manage and protect Apple devices in the workplace. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work effortlessly and affordably. Ask for your EXTRA TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.