Who can deny the importance of printers and printer ink cartridges as an essential item among office supplies? Printers are to be seen everywhere in any office you go. Even in homes, printers are being used extensively for various casual purposes. Many people use printers in homes when they want a high-quality printout of their favourite photos. Remove a printer from an office and its daily office business cannot run. Printing bills, cards, glossy brochures, proformas, notices are usual printing tasks seen in offices. Your printing requirements may range from simple rough draft printouts to high-quality glossy photo prints.
A printer ink cartridge supplies the ink to your printer for your printing processes. This ink spreads out on paper as printed matter during the printing process. You can replace the ink cartridge when the ink inside it is exhausted.
As far as printer ink cartridges are concerned, there are four premium brands which have worldwide consumers: HP (Hewlett Packard), Canon, Epson, Lexmark.
Be it standard ink meant for professional-quality photographs or paper prints, printer ink cartridges are available in many packages, big and small size, which give the users more choice and greater value for their printing needs. Apart from black and white, coloured ink cartridges are also available.
These days, various types of ink cartridges are available for enhanced consumer satisfaction. For example, HP has introduced multiple ink cartridges keeping in mind the varied needs of the consumers. Introduction of new ink cartridge packages are designed to save purchase costs for customers whose printing needs are nominal, and lower cost-per-page ink cartridge packages for customers whose printing requirements are high. This is so because the cost of ink cartridges is rather very high. Interestingly, purchase of these cartridges after three times can equal the purchasing cost of the printer itself.
Over the last several years the battle over high price ink/cartridges is beginning to solidify. The lines are slightly clearer and alliances have formed here and there. Ink replacement, replacement cartridges, discount printer ink cartridges and just plain OEM cartridges have found themselves vying for position with their option being the best. They are almost all winners and OEM the only loser as consumers look to cut costs on printer ink.
Solid savings
OEM manufacturers are most noticeably not giving up the fight but are ultimately going to be forced to play nice with the new industry they brought upon themselves. In July 2007 savings of up to 50-70 percent can be found by using replacement ink or replacement cartridges. Although the savings are there, the buyer must beware because the quality of the ink needs to be compatible to arrive at; not only a quality print job but a safe print job that does not damage the printer itself.
The basics
What brought on this new industry of replacement ink and discount replacement ink was the original strategy that the printer companies decided to follow. A valid pricing strategy by any means the printer manufacturers would offer the printer itself as a loss leader and make their profits on the ink. This strategy is no different than any other of its type. The printer companies did their best to differentiate their particular inks so that the chemistry would require a specific ink for just their machines. For the most part this has worked, but only to a degree, and original pricing starts to get in the way as it is now. This is where the new industry comes in.
Chemistry
These days it is not all that difficult to figure out the chemistry of just about anything. Patents are even more difficult in this area. So, other manufacturers figured out the chemistry of the OEM printers ink and were able to replicate discount printer ink and replacement ink. Then they got to play the real fun game. The OEM printers had set their prices for a captured market and a fairly high price at that. The new manufacturers had a ready made price ceiling apposed to OEMs shooting darts at what the market would bare.
What is the right price?
It may be a little misleading to say discount printer ink. Perhaps attaching a company to it like, discount ink for Epson would be a better idea. Since the OEM manufacturers were setting pricing fairly high, to make as much money as possible before new replacement ink companies came along, the original price was not the real price but rather a starting point. Where the price goes after replacement ink and replacement cartridge companies settle in is when discount printer ink can actually be called discount.
The evolution of the printer and printer ink market is just one of several economic plays being carried out in a very new emerging market. Computers and printers have not really been around that long. A pricing system is still working its way through the marketplace for all products. Saving money on printer ink today will, in all likelihood, not mean anything in a year as the savings will be even more as prices continue to settle.
Both Brayan Russell & James Kara Murat are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brayan Russell has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet, Personal Desktop and Computers and The Internet. Brayan Russell is a renowned business writer who has years of experience in writing technical reviews, product descriptions and product feature analysis of technical gadgets and gizmos. He has won appreciation especially for good writing about prod. Brayan Russell's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.
James Kara Murat has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, computers and the internet and Marine Corps. This Article is written by James Kara Murat from PrintCountry.com, the contributor of Printer Ink FAQ . A longer version of this article is located at. James Kara Murat's top article generates over 60500 views. to your Favourites.