Razors and Blades and ....Kodak?

[Pistos]

Last month Lyra Research hosted a webinar on how China was bending the printer and ink model. Epson had been losing up to 80% of their consumable sales to aftermarket - when your sales model depends upon ink sales to be profitable this is very bad. Recently (in the last couple of years) they began releasing different printers in the Asian market that were priced high enough to make a profit on the hardware but the consumables sell for less than half of comparable North American cartridges.

The speculation was if or when this sales model would be brought to bear in our neck of the woods, who would introduce it here, and how it would affect the market as a whole. General concensus was that if introduced in the North American market by a major player everyone would reluctantly follow suit and current printer/ink model (lose money on the printer, make money on the ink) would forever be changed.

Yesterday, Kodak announced their entry into the consumer inkjet industry with a marketing campaign centered around the cost of ink. Their machines will be more expensive but cheaper to operate. From their press release, We are changing the rules in this industry to ensure that consumers can affordably print what they want, when they want."

Did anyone see this coming?
Will they be able to build enough momentum to force the other manufacturers' hands?

For Kodak's press release:
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_US&gpcid=0900688a80671462

Cheers,

Jeff Hipson

 

[canonfodder]

Well, I for one have certainly been wishing for such a business model change of this sort by all the players. I don't know anything about Kodak and how good they might be at making printers, but if Canon changed their ways, they could make a lot of happy customers. Those customers that only do very few personal prints per month could more easily afford to pump that up to several times as many, even make more copies for Aunt Mary.

As long as the ink in cartridges costs greater than twice that of good quality bulk ink, I will stay with refilling or a CIS. It might even take a lower margin than that, now that I have already started to manage bulk ink. IN FACT, I remember swearing that Canon will NEVER get any more money from me for ink. I bought the iP4200 without a clue as to Canon's ink pricing policy. That's why I call my self "canonfodder". I feel I have been shot by Canon. Of course, other than my anger over the ink pricing, I love my printer. It is almost perfect!

I have acquaintences who would not think of refilling if OEM cartridge ink was only twice the price of bulk ink.

Someone, please remind me of the honest numbers on the cost per page for color photo work done on Canon photo paper with Canon OEM ink versus the same work done on Costco Kirkland Glossy with good bulk ink refilled in OEM cartridges. I know that Kirkland paper is only costing me 13 to 14 cents a sheet.

 

[WhiteDog]

I wish Kodak well with this move. Their pricing of the ink is very canny. Even the most diehard refiller will have to think twice when a 3-color cartridge is only $14.99. The printers are an exclusive to BestBuy, at least for awhile, so there will be no discount marketing of the printer as I see it.

 

[fish]

Pigment ink also!

 

[canonfodder]

I will wish for Kodak to issue a printer that is NOT "All-In-One", though many in homes will not agree with me. I have a preference for separate machines, leaving me free to pick each machine type on its individual merits.

Personally, I don't even need any copier, though my wife does. If I got that function within an All-In-One, we would have some conflict when we both needed the machine. Besides, I really don't want her near MY machines. Before you consider me too selfish, you should know that she won't let me use her ceramic kitchen knives, her Quisinart food processor, or her big Craftsman Jig Saw.

 

[vkakula]

The new line of Kodak inkjets will be using ink developed in collaboration with HP. This is the same ink as the current HP Vivera. The fact that they are dropping the floor out on price is HUGE! This is going to put a ton of pressure on Lexmark and certainly keep HP busy if their boardroom melodrama hasn't done so already.

As for us refillers this is great news. With ink that guarantees photo prints lasting 100+ at half the price of anything out there currently I can see myself buying this just for archiving photo prints and business correspondence\marketing while continuing refilling the Canon for junk prints. This was the line Epson was playing with their overpriced UltraChrome inks. I really hope Kodak makes big ripples in this space because we the consumer ultimately win.

 

[mikling]

It's still razor blades business, just another twist anyway you look at it. If their printer had a built in CIS, then we'd see some real action.
I'm willing to bet their cartridges will be non resettable chips.