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The inkjet printer business model is becoming a 'consumables'
driven one that has taken a page from the razor blade business. Sell
razors quality and charge more for the blades.
Most manufacturers make the majority of their money on the
consumables such as ink cartridges and special paper, which is why we are
starting to see a large number of sub £50 printers.
Several studies have been done on the actual cost of ownership on
inkjet printers and in most cases the highest cost per page was in the
lowest price printers. Many provide less ink (in some cases half the ink!)
in a cartridge that looks the same, so you end up buying them twice as
often. In some cases, an inexpensive printer can cost twice as much to use
over a 2-year period because of the small amount of ink in the
cartridges.
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A
Computeractive investigation looked at printers from the big four
manufacturers, Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark.
SURVEY
FINDINGS
Canon i560 - £129 to buy; cost of ownership over 18 months -
£1029
Epson C46UX - £49 to buy; cost of ownership over 18 months -
£1157
HP Deskjet 5150 - £89 to buy; cost of ownership over 18 months -
£708
Lexmark z605 - £40 to buy; cost of ownership over 18 months -
£1775
"Well over a year later our results suggest that consumers
are still at serious risk of being ripped off,"
The average life of
a black ink and colour cartridge was calculated, as was the cost per page
of printing.
The cost of the ink was a big factor in driving costs
up. Ink cartridges vary in both price and the amount of time they last,
from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Responding to the survey, Lexmark said the research was flawed
because it did not compare like with like.
"We estimate people will
purchase around two cartridges per year. Customers who want to print a
large amount should quite rightly look beyond just the ticket price," said
a statement from the firm.
Canon said it could not comment on the
survey because it had not seen it, but added that the cost of printers and
cartridges reflected the amount of money the company spent on research and
development.
Last summer a report by Which? Magazine found that
some printer ink cost more per millilitre than vintage
champagne.
A
similar situation applies to HP Large
Format | Mimaki Wide Format | and Epson or Kodak
Another example is Toner
refilling particularly Colour Toner
refilling | 
