Cost Saving Ideas for Ink Buyers
January 30th, 2010When you purchase a new printer it usually has some free ink. When buying a printer a lot of customers don t take into consideration the cost of the cartridges. The ink market now applies the some business practices as King Gillette used to dominate the Razor Market. The razor maker has been marketing low cost handles and premium cost blades for over one hundred years, and now has a eminent stance in the market place. As a result of the steep costs, compatible inks are catching on.
With prices so high, many consumers are looking to compatible inks as a way to save cash. According to The Register some brands of printer ink cost seven times more per millilitre than a bottle of Dom Perignon (1985).
It often looks that printer manufacturers do everything possible to stop the compatible inks market. Most of the printer manufacturers place microchips on their ink cartridges to monitor the ink usage. Most printers will not work unless the cartridge they have has a valid chip. Creating these chips can present great difficulties for the makers of compatible inks. The difficulties of making cartridges that carry chips does restrain the number of copy cartridge makers. It is essential to check that the ink cartridges you purchase are fully compatible with your printers chip reader.
Court cases have been taking place in lots of countries between printer manufacturers and the producers of compatible inks. Lexmark took action in the United States against compatibles maker Static Control Components, in what was to prove a landmark court case. Lexmark controls its own Toner Loading Program where the company refills consumers ink cartridges. Lexmark brand printers incorporate a technology that makes the printer stop when it finds that the cartridge was not filled again by Lexmark. The case revolved around an alleged DMCA infraction by the compatible manufacturer. The court struggle took seven years with the outcome that the Lexmark toner loading program was pronounced not to be copyright-able, opening the gates for compatibles makers. After seven long years of legal wrangling and appeals, Lexmark lost the case.
There are lots of compatible ink manufacturers, from all around the globe. There are huge variances in quality between the different manufacturers and cartridges. Check out the makers of compatible inks carefully before buying. With the price differences it is surprising how many customers have not switched to compatible ink. There is also money to be saved inside the compatibles marketplace with some quite large price variations.
Always shop around to find the best deals. Ink price comparison websites can be a very good way to do this. Using these sites is usually a quick way to save money.