Why The "Brand Name" Printer Ink Companies Hate Third Party Vendors

If you purchased a Lexmark or Hewlett Packard inkjet printer over the past year, you must have noticed that the price you paid was surprisingly low. However, the ink cartridges that they sell with the printer will cost an arm and a leg, Right? (you might want to read "How to tell which printers are cost effective" ) What gives?

Well, the logic big companies use is something like this: price a brand new Gillette razor really low so you can sell the replacement razor blades really high, make sense?

Consumers are getting increasingly mad about having to pay high prices for brand named ink cartridges, like Lexmark and Hewlett Packard. "The brands dominate; together, Canon, Epson, Hewlett Packard and Lexmark account for 84 percent of the ink replacement market" states Tom Spring of PC World Magazine.

Enter the independent third party vendors. They are trying to capitalizing on a $21 billion dollar market need, by selling compatible printer ink cartridges and ink refill kits. Can you blame them for finding a niche that consumers are crying out for? The big name companies claim that third-party vendor ink is inferior to the brand-name versions. But are they?

Everything I have read or have experienced indicates quite the contrary. According to Neil Slade's research on testing compatible ink cartridges, he states, "Not only did I test nearly a dozen brands of inexpensive inks (two tests over a long period of time) none of them failed (even the ones with bad color) by clogging my print heads-- especially the G&G ink, which I have used for a year to print tens of thousands of documents. Of all the inks I tested, only Arrow failed because of bad cart ink flow, not even because it clogged the head."

It has been published that the gross margins on an Epson ink cartridge, for example, can sometimes top 60%. However, the Lexmark's and Epson's of the world will deny those percentages. Why then would they go as far as to plan implanting a chip inside their ink cartridges? A chip you say? Because the printer you purchased from them would only print once it recognizes this chip, thereby virtually eliminating the compatible ink cartridges market.

The brand name manufactures are also defending the reason for the high cost of replacement ink by saying that they are spending huge amounts of spending on technology improvements. "Predictably, Hewlett Packard and others say their cartridge prices aren't high considering the cost of research and development and manufacturing the equipment. Mr. Jotwani points out that at Hewlett Packard, an ink jet printer cartridge is very sophisticated. For example, each has 40 microscopic nozzles that precisely expel billions of ink dots across a page. Hewlett Packard is also attentive to ink quality to assure uniform viscosity and color".

So, after all is said and done, do you think it all comes down to money? The big brand name companies are just trying everything in their power to justify the cost of their ink products.

The Future Of Inkjet Cartridges-Part II

A while back I wrote an article about the "Future of Ink Cartridges", which stirred up some interest to say the least. The reason for this was that you would no longer need a toner cartridge to print a document or a photo. Enabled printers will change the way the world thinks about printing and image making. They won't require ink cartridges or ribbons, so they are extremely small and are not affected by gravity. They can be pocket-sized or be embedded into almost any electronic device.

But don't throw out your ink cartridges just yet. This may take some time to come to market. In the meantime, we can surely discuss what the impacts are likely to be for us, the consumer, and on big corporations, i.e. Lexmark and HP. For now, you will need your old fashion toner cartridges to print your documents. Not to worry, Tonerr.com can fulfill your printing equipment needs in the interim with great prices and many high quality brands.

What impact is this new technology going have on the consumer? Well, looking at the pluses, better quality prints and photo's than you get now with the old conventional laser printers. Why? The secret is in the paper. Special photo paper is comprised of dye crystals that are set in the paper. Before the printing process begins, the dye crystals become clear, making the paper look like a regular piece of white photo paper, but when run through a special-enabled printer, heat triggers the dye crystals to add color. The result is a high quality digital print or photo, and the best part, NO INK CARTRIDGES.
Mobility is another new plus. You are going to be able to take a picture with your electronic devise, say an I-phone, and be able to print a copy or photo at that instant. You will be able to send a digital photo from a cell phone using the Bluetooth wireless system. About 30 seconds later, a wallet-size color photo will emerge from a tiny slot on the end.

Cost may be a plus. The cost of a small printer that uses this technology will be around $100 as a ball park number, but that could potentially change. Remember the Polaroid camera. Its cost was high when it first came out, so even though technology has come a long way, it would still be spectacle about its cost. The camera is expected to cost roughly $200.

What is the impact going to be on the major printing supply companies? What would you think? I think initially not much, but as the new technology this company is touting becomes known, the big company margins will start to suffer. Once this becomes widely accepted and sales are at a peak, they will eventually license their technology to all and get an additional revenue source as a result, while the Lexmark's Printer Ink of the world spin their wheels trying to get on board.

I think this new technology will be available sometime in 2008. So, keep checking my blog for more updates.