Where Did All the Cheap Inkjet Cartridges Come From?
Posted in Computers on October 31st, 2009 by ComputersThe search is always on for inkjet cartridges and the cheaper they are the better. Everyone wants them – your printer won’t work without a constant supply of them. Companies are doing their best to churn out these cheaper cartridges for a wider range of printers for less cash every single day. The demand for sanely priced inkjet cartridges grows each month – especially now during a tough time for economies all over the world.
Printer companies like HP and Canon will make commitments to the quality and durability of their printers but never to lowering the price of their printer ink or their cartridges. To be fair it’s not just HP or Canon who are guilty of this but all inkjet printer manufacturers. The reason for this? Companies like HP and Epson don’t make a lot of money from the sales of printers – their main profits come from the sales of inkjet cartridges themselves.
If printer companies were to change their approach to this sales model they’d need to increase the cost of the printers by at least 75% – this would mean the sale of printers would drop like a rock. Fewer printers sold = fewer people looking for replacement ink cartridges. That’s just plain bad for business right?
To get around this problem the printer companies charge you top dollar for the consumables such as ink for your inkjet printer. Think about this. You pay $30 – $80 for your new ink cartridges. Each cartridge only contains a few milliliters of ink. A gallon of this same ink would cost about $10,000. Yes really.
One of two things is happening here.
a. Printer companies are overcharging the general public; or
b. The ink in your cartridges is made of some super secret fluid that costs $10,000 per gallon.
It’s not very likely that the ink in your printer is made from some super secret ink formula right? Well then that answers the question of why they’re priced at such high levels doesn’t it?
Here’s the weird outcome of all of this though. Printer companies are charging top dollar for their inkjet cartridge products. You (the consumer) simply aren’t willing to pay silly prices for these cartridges. This has created a brand new industry made up of companies who only have one focus – produce inkjet cartridges in large quantities and as cheaply as possible. Then sell them online and offline to as many people as possible.
Printer companies are now in running legal battles with these cut-price companies to stop them selling their products. These third party companies would never have come into existence if the printer companies hadn’t been charging so much for their products in the first place. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot eh?
In the boardrooms of inkjet printer companies all over the world there are marketing executives sitting with their heads in their hands mumbling “Charge what the market will bear. Charge what the market will bear.” Sometimes you just can’t teach an old dog new tricks can you?
The day of the inkjet market monopoly is over and isn’t it just great that you have such a wide range of products to choose from at prices that suit you?