OKI Data Americas today launched two new printer models aimed at the small and midsized businesses with growing mobile and cloud print needs, the C532dn and MC573dn.
Available today through channel partners, both models follow the company’s focus on delivering printers that stand up needs of today’s small businesses, according to Mark Hansinger, senior vice president of U.S. Sales for OKI Data Americas. “This isn’t just office printing or printing that you do at home,” he said during a media presentation. “They really need their output for something important.”
That print output can include invoices, presentations, marketing materials and other documents that SMBs need to conduct their daily business.
Both the new C532dn color desktop printer and MC573dn color multifunction printer (MFP) use the company’s LED print head technology. Compared to laser-based systems that use a mirror that shifts its position to allowing the laser to scan across a page, OKI’s LED print heads are solid-state units. They contain no moving parts and span the complete width of a page, reducing wear on the printer.
Both units have print speeds of 31 pages per minute in color and black and white. With optional trays, customers can stretch the printers’ paper capacity to 1,410 sheets. An optional, user-installable wireless module provides WiFi connectivity.
The MC573dn color MFP is equipped with a 7-inch touch screen that provides quick access apps and settings. Users can customize the screen to display commonly used apps and print functions. For IT personnel, the screen display provides step-by-step instructions on maintenance tasks.
In terms of security, print jobs are sent and received over the network using IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) standard for encrypted communications. For added security, the Private Print feature can be used to release a print job after a user enters a PIN on the physical printer.
Mirroring today’s work forces, the printers are cloud- and mobile-enabled. The company supplies optional connectors for a variety of cloud-based productivity and document storage platforms including Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive and DropBox. Mobile users can print from their iOS devices and Android devices, courtesy of AirPrint and Google Cloud Print compatibility, respectively. Users can also elect to print with the company’s own app for Android and iOS.
New to the C532dn and MC573dn is support for Google Cloud Print 2.0, which offers a bandwidth-sparing feature called Local Mode.
Schools and larger environments where Chromebooks are popular have experienced a brush with Google Cloud Print’s downside, said OKI Data Americas technology manager Keith Fenton. “The only way to print with those Chromebooks is with Google Cloud Print,” adding that all the print traffic generated by an organization’s fleet of Chromebooks “goes through the Google Cloud” causing a wide range of issues.
Fenton said that in some environments the technology causes networking issues and stokes security concerns among IT professionals. Some have struggled with managing the cloud print solution.
Google Cloud Print 2.0’s Local Mode “keeps all of that print traffic in your local environment, it never actually hits the cloud,” Fenton said. “It addresses the security concerns and it addresses the bandwidth concerns of working through the cloud.”
