The Internet has gone mobile, self evident to any who have traveled lately. Notice the lack of conversation and the bowed heads praying to the luminous screen of an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android, after the plane has landed. Many of the tasks that only a few years ago would have required a laptop and WiFi are now a fingertip away.
The mobile revolution will change the way print is purchased. There is already a market for mobile e-commerce, mostly in the form of electronic media purchases (ringtones, music, etc.), which translated to roughly $27 billion dollars in 2008. As the mobile devices and consumer’s purchasing options mature, the e-commerce categories will trickle down to other categories, including print. Sound like the land of dreams and lollipops? Consider you can already purchase plane tickets, movie tickets, pizza to name a few with your iPhone.
As of this writing, only two MIS systems for the print industry have smartphone capabilities: EFI’s Pace and Hiflex. Although a great feature, both implementations appear to target people within the print shop. Sure, it is nice for your salesforce to order and track customer’s jobs but it would be even better for the consumer to be able to customize and order directly from their mobile smartphone. Unfortunately, most vendors will probably be hesistant to cannibalize sales of their Web2Print software by offering this mobile functionality. Eventually, the same vendors will start to merge their Web2Print and MIS product lines after realizing that the traditional Web2Print model is just a stop gap on the way to mobile ordering. Keep an eye on the developments in this space, eventually “we have an app for that” will be a key selling point.
Get an overview of the current iPhone apps from EFI Pace (via GraphicArts Magazine) and Hiflex. Note: Hiflex requires Google’s Chrome if using a PC or Safari on a Mac.
