Printers Guzzle Ink, Tell Lies

It's no secret that ink printer manufacturers try and make most of their money off the consumables associated with printing. Unlike laser printers, they essentially give away the printer, but then charge a lot of money for the the inkjet cartridges and, to a lesser extent, the paper. Fine, but apparently there is a bit more to the story, as a new study found that more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. This is because most users huck them when their printers tells them they're out of ink. Turns out the infernal gadget is lying - they may still be over half full!

The findings come from a study, conducted by TÜV Rheinland and commissioned by Epson, that studied the efficiency of both single and multi-ink cartridges from various vendors. Surprise, surprise - Epson's own R360 posted the best numbers, with only 9 percent of the ink wasted. Kodak's, with its EasyShare 5300 came in as the straggler, wasting over 64 percent of its ink in tests. According to the study, some printers have hundreds of pages worth of ink left when they beep that they are 'dry'. And there's another wrinkle as well.

Readers that have followed the printing world for a while know that some printers use multi-ink cartridges (3 to 5 colors all in the same cartridge) and some use separate cartridges (one cartridge, one color.) Obviously, the multi-ink cartridge fare worse in these types of tests because they can be 'emptied' as soon as a single color runs low (like when printing out a Powerpoint presentation.) This unravels the story a little bit more, as Epson (who backed the study) uses primarily single-ink cartridges in their printers; this is almost guaranteed to be more efficient because there's only one color per cartridge, and thus only one cartridge to replace when that color runs out. These still waste ink - up to 20 percent - but generally were better than the multi-ink cartridge models.

The final wrinkle is that the study also did not calculate the total cost per page, which arguably is more important than efficiency. Epson refused to comment on this which suggests, well, you know. Lots of solutions to the problem; First, don't listen to your printer and use your cartridges until they run dry. Second, try an online service like Photobox, or use a continuous flow system. And third, if you are buying a printer, check out cost per page as well. :: arsTechnica

Good, Better, Bad Ink

HP has devised a new scheme for vending printer cartridges. First, why are these schemes always using the primary colors; how about the purple, teal, and burnt umber scheme? Oh well, let's continue.

Instead of the one-size-fits-all model (which HP had for 25 years), the new model has three different cartridge types. I'll cut to the chase - “Standard” cartridges (in the blue) are going to be cheaper to buy, “Value” cartridges (in the green) will be cheaper per page, and “Specialty” cartridges (red) will be the expensive, high end ink.

On the face of it, the scheme seems ridiculous - you have to choose between low cartridge price or low cost per print? (Note: I'm just completely forgetting about the red ones.) Kodak agrees, who saw the announcement, and mentioned it was a great marketing campaign for them because it endorses their own strategy :

"Volume discounts aren't new," Kodak added. "Kodak believes consumers will be more delighted with its approach because they will get both a low cost-per-page AND an inexpensive cartridge - $9.99 for premium black ink and $14.99 for premium, five-ink color cartridges. This will generate real Kodak lab-quality prints for as low as 15 cents apiece. Unlike HP customers, Kodak printer owners won't have to search for special cartridges or pay in advance to get a great value."

Yeah, that's it. Product differentiation is usually a scheme to try and soak up residual value, and my neck is getting a little hot when I have to choose between two different forms of cheap. :: LetsGoDigital