Finally...Cheaper Ink!

Kodak is making a comeback by introducing new inkjet printers. The good thing is, the ink is much more affordable than other competitive brands such as Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark, or Dell. It will be offering its new line of inkjet printers between $149 and $300. It averages about $50 more than the competitors' price but the ink prices ranges from $10 for black ink to $15 for color ink. Average ink price for the inkjet printer is said to be around $25 as opposed to the whopping $60 to $80 for other photo ink cartridges. Kodak said it will even include more ink in their cartridges than competitors. Apparently, ink manufacturers have never lowered their prices or engaged in price wars, but hopefully Kodak will change all this and be able to force the price of ink down for consumers' sake. This strategy may attract more buyers to their new printers as they will realize it will pay for itself in a year.

From personal experience, the ink can sometimes cost nearly as much as the printer if not more. One time, my friend wanted to buy replacement ink for his printer at home. So we went to Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale. After checking the price that he will have to spend on replacing all the cartridges, it seemed logical to check out printer prices instead. For the price he had to pay for the ink, we thought, why don't we just buy a new printer? We checked for printer prices that, for $10-15 dollars more, he could get a new printer that came with a brand new set of ink. He finally settled for a refurbished Epson photo inkjet printer with an LCD screen, which cost only about $10 more than the cost of ink for his old printer. Quality was much better than the one he owned and even some of the new ones in the store. It came with a set of brand new ink as well. We adopted a new strategy of buying a new printer than replacing all the ink. Better deal for the pocket but very wasteful. We didn't really adopt that approach, but it truly was a good idea. Well, at least Kodak is introducing cheap ink, but it will be up to the consumers' who will judge its quality.

Articles From: USA Today and New York Times.