AmbiCom to offer Bluetooth print adaptor

Peripherals vendor one of the first to push device for cable-free printing

Wireless peripherals vendor AmbiCom will introduce a Bluetooth adaptor to allow firms to print from a PC or PDA without having to use any cables.

The vendor is one of the first to offer this type of Bluetooth adaptor, which builds a proprietary layer on top of Bluetooth and can be used to upgrade some USB-equipped printers to support wireless printing.

Carmelo Amarena, AmbiCom's international sales manager, said the firm would open its proprietary standard up to other wireless vendors if printer vendors failed to build Bluetooth into their products.

Bluetooth was originally designed to remove wired connections between devices, but the standard has been slow to take off in the US compared with Europe, where mobile phone usage is higher.

AmbiCom is also in the final stages of signing Widget as its UK distributor, and is in talks with retailers Maplin and PC World.

Mark Needham, managing director of Widget, said his firm was looking forward to shipping AmbiCom's products. The peripherals distributor beat Tech Data Europe to the deal.

"We are a smaller, specialist distributor, so we tend to give more attention to the vendors than a larger distributor with more product lines would," Needham said.