Friday, May 14, 2004
Daniel Gray Rants on Inkjet Cartridges
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 03:00 PM
"It's clear that inkjet printer cartridges are our generations classic example of the "razor-for-the-blades" (RFTB) marketing approach. In RFTB marketing, the expensive razor is given away, in order to sell many more of the even more expensive blades, down the road. With inkjet printer cartridges, it's all too obvious. I could swear (and I often do) that the cost of some inkjet printer cartridges seem to exceed the cost of the printer itself.
Far be it for me to criticize the inkjet printer manufacturers for the practice. I think that inexpensive color inkjet printers are pretty cool ... not perfect by any means ... but pretty cool. The idea that absolutely anyone can afford color prints would have seemed unfathomable in the early days of the desktop publishing revolution. Back then, desktop color printers were insanely expensive, and in the province of the well-heeled. These days, color inkjet printers are everywhere ... if only those darn cartridges weren't so expensive!"
Daniel has a good rant about ink prices and he talks about his experiences with replacement inks. Once, many years ago when I had my first Canon bubblejet printer, I bought a DIY inkjet replacement kit. It was a complete disaster. Since then, and after reading about how badly most third-party inks fade, I've stuck to OEM inks. What about you?
Far be it for me to criticize the inkjet printer manufacturers for the practice. I think that inexpensive color inkjet printers are pretty cool ... not perfect by any means ... but pretty cool. The idea that absolutely anyone can afford color prints would have seemed unfathomable in the early days of the desktop publishing revolution. Back then, desktop color printers were insanely expensive, and in the province of the well-heeled. These days, color inkjet printers are everywhere ... if only those darn cartridges weren't so expensive!"
Daniel has a good rant about ink prices and he talks about his experiences with replacement inks. Once, many years ago when I had my first Canon bubblejet printer, I bought a DIY inkjet replacement kit. It was a complete disaster. Since then, and after reading about how badly most third-party inks fade, I've stuck to OEM inks. What about you?
