TROY XCD, a subsidiary of TROY Group Inc. (Nasdaq:TROY), today announced the debut of its Wireless Printing Device ("WPD"), a product for connecting a printer with a variety of mobile data devices manufactured by other companies, using a Bluetooth wireless communications link.
The WPD enables a Bluetooth-enabled mobile data device to connect with a printer within approximately 30 feet without using cables or installing any connectivity enhancement on the sending device. This allows "on-the-fly" printing from a laptop computer, handheld computer or PDA ("Personal Data Assistant") to any of a wide range of popular printer brands and models when used in conjunction with the WPD.
By installing the device on any printer equipped with a parallel or serial port, users will be able to achieve wireless printing, based upon the emerging Bluetooth wireless connectivity standard, using a number of the most popular mobile data devices produced by a variety of manufacturers. Thus, the WPD can be used by leading-edge developers of a wide range of data devices to facilitate the engineering, development and marketing of Bluetooth-enabled products for any of a wide range of real-world applications.
"The WPD represents another significant milestone toward wide adoption of Bluetooth-enabled device connectivity," said Patrick J. Dirk, TROY's chairman and CEO. "Last June at the Bluetooth Congress in Monte Carlo, we were the first company to demonstrate a product for printing from a PC over a Bluetooth wireless communications link using TROY devices at both ends of the transmission.
"The new WPD broadens the range of Bluetooth-enabled connectivity because it can communicate with many different devices, not just TROY products," continued Dirk. "We are proud to be the first to offer wireless printing, even in advance of the completion of the Bluetooth Printing Profile, so that early adopters of this exciting technology can use it now."
The WPD complies with the widely used Bluetooth RFCOMM protocol and Serial Port Profile and employs TROY's proprietary printing technology. Because it uses flash memory, the WPD can be easily upgraded in the future to add new features, including the proposed Bluetooth Printing Profile. When established and adopted, the Bluetooth Printing Profile will provide device-to-device connectivity even more universally, without the need to reconfigure a printing job for each particular brand or model of printer used.
Bluetooth, named for the 10th Century Viking king who united Denmark, is a new low-cost radio technology that is designed to eliminate the need for cabling in a wide range of products, including cellular phones, PCs, headphones, audio equipment, printers and many more. It has unprecedented industry support, with over 2,000 companies in the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, including all of the leading players in the telecommunications and computing industry. According to Cahners In-Stat group, the Bluetooth market will grow from virtually zero in 1999 to over one billion Bluetooth-enabled devices shipped in 2005.
First shipments of the WPD will take place by the end of October.
Bluetooth is a trademark of Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson, and licensed to TROY XCD. All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged.
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