Apple AirPrint For iOS 4.2 Is A No Show For Holiday Selling Season

Apple's AirPrint wireless printing capability for iPad, iPhone, and iPod is going to be a no show for the holiday selling season.

Apple has apparently decided to pull the eagerly anticipated AirPrint functionality from the scheduled iOS 4.2 update, according to a MacStories news report.

Apple announced a beta version of AirPrint functionality to the Apple iOS developer community last September. At that time, Apple promised that AirPrint will be included in a free iOS 4.2 software update in November.

Michael Oh, founder and CEO of Tech Superpowers, a Boston-based Apple reseller, speculated that the AirPrint functionality was delayed because "something about the (wireless printing) experience isn't working correctly."

"It's great functionality that everyone wants but for some reason it is not working the way Apple wants," he said. "I think you'll probably see it in iOS 4.3.

"I think they learned their lesson from the iPhone antennagate," said Oh, referring to Apple's release of the iPhone 4 earlier this year which was lambasted for dropping calls and losing signal strength because of the placement of an antenna. "The lesson is they are not going to put out a half-baked solution. That what this comes down to."

"We have been told from a few Mac Developers that a few days ago Apple removed all the references to printing via OS X 10.6.5 and PCs from Readme files and other online documentation posted in the iOS developer center," according to the MacStories report.

When the AirPrint functionality was officially unveiled two months ago, Apple Senior Vice President Philip Schiller singled it out as a breakthrough "new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS - no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download."

"iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to an HP ePrint printer or to a printer shared on a Mac or PC," said Schiller.

HP Executive Vice President Vyomesh Joshi touted the new functionality as a "holiday shopping season" bonus.

"We're pleased to work with Apple to bring Apple's AirPrint to our fall lineup of ePrint printers in time for the holiday shopping season," said Joshi. "Making it easy for our customers to print anytime, anywhere, is a key priority for HP. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch customers are going to love how easy it is to print using our new range of ePrint printers, creating high-quality printed pages in an instant."

Oh said the AirPrint functionality is a breakthrough feature that continues Apple's iOS innovation. "Apple is out innovating Microsoft and they are out innovating Google," said Oh. "They have an extremely well polished mobile and tablet operating systems that are leaps and bounds ahead of what is currently on the market."