Apple To Eliminate Printer Drivers
Apple has filed two patent applications that describe an approach as well as file formats and APIs to eliminate the printer driver as a requirement for users to access a printer and print documents. Software drivers have been one of the big inconveniences in mainstream computing.
Context & Ripple Effects
The printer-driver patents are a continuation of Apple's campaign against installed-software friction. The company had already tried driverless printing once with AirPrint, before reports in November 2010 claimed it cancelled Mac and Windows support for the feature, and in February it moved to eliminate another legacy artifact by ending retail boxed software inventory. The May patent filing for a platform-independent word processor showed the same instinct: move document creation off local installed software.
The filings also land days after Apple's widely reported push into cloud services — the same week users reported Apple IDs being unexpectedly disabled as iCloud infrastructure came online. Printing without drivers only works if the OS owns the print pipeline's formats and APIs, which is exactly what these applications describe.
First-order effects
- Printer manufacturers lose their guaranteed touchpoint with Mac and iOS users: if Apple's file formats and APIs ship, access to printers runs through Apple's stack rather than vendor-written drivers, cutting vendors out of the install relationship.
- Users on Apple platforms get printers working at plug-in time, removing one of mainstream computing's most persistent setup failures.
Second-order effects
- Peripheral vendors would be forced to compete on what their hardware exposes through Apple's APIs — features a driver used to surface privately now have to be negotiated with the platform owner.
- Microsoft and other OS makers face pressure to match driverless printing or cede another usability advantage to Apple's tightly integrated hardware-software model.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across peripherals, hardware access increasingly flows through platform-owner-defined formats and APIs — consolidating gatekeeper power over the device ecosystem in whoever writes the OS.
- Driver elimination points toward a broader shift from locally installed compatibility software to standardized, cloud-mediated protocols, weakening the traditional PC-peripheral vendor relationship.
The trend: Apple is systematically replacing locally installed software intermediaries — boxed applications, then drivers — with formats and APIs under its own control, accelerating as its cloud push deepens.