Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Epson strikes back at Calidad inks as Ink Sales suffer
“Tests show Calidad inks not suitable for printing photographs” screamed the headline from an Epson press release.Third party ink suppliers are estimated to be at approximately 30% of after market ink cartridge sales, printer manufacturers like Epson are waging a PR war against cut price competitors.
Razor Blade Model
As most consumers of inkjet printers probably know, printing manufacturers like Epson, Lexmark, HP, Canon that most inkjets now sold are more or less disposable products retailing at ridiculously low prices where they recoup their costs woth overpriced inkjet cartridges. Similar things are happening in the emerging color laser printer space.
3rd Part Inks Thrive
There is a healthy and growing market for third party ink suppliers which sell replacement ink cartridges significantly below the prices of OEM cartridges. This has the effect of eating into the after market ink sales of printing manufacturers and it also lengthens the printer replacement cycle as consumers will tend to keep printers longer if they can source reasonably priced ink refills.
Political Wars
Faced with a challenge to their business models by third party after market ink sales, OEM suppliers are becoming more aggressive in their anti-third party rhetoric.Epson warned against the use of third party inks in its printers with the release of “independent test results” which purport to show that one of Australia and New Zealand’s best known third-party ink brands, Calidad, has one of the poorest results for print life ever measured.
Epson Claims
“The Calidad ink cartridges appear to contain low-stability dye-based substitutes for Epson high-stability DURABrite pigment inks. The Calidad inks have poor resistance to atmospheric ozone that may be present in homes and offices, and the Calidad inks also give up waterfastness when printed on plain paper,” Mr Wilhelm said.
“When Epson users see these results they should be in no doubt that using third party inks in their Epson printers will lead to rapid fading and loss of their precious photographs,” Epson’s Marketing Communications Director, Mike Pleasants said.
“I am sure that no parents would want to give or receive as a gift a framed photograph of treasured children, friends or relatives, or that special occasion, that can suffer significant fading in less than a year,” Pleasants said.
3rd Party Manufacturers fight back
Despite the claims from Epson, however, the third party market has hit back with its own report which refutes any suggestions that third party ink products are inferior to the more expensive OEM products.
A new survey by Lyra Research and published in Recharger Magazine revealed that
48% of respondents who had used non-OEM supplies said that they have never had a problem with a non-printer-brand cartridge.
6% have had many problems, defined as more than 10 percent of the time, and
44% have had “just a few problems,” defined as less than 10% of the time.
Overall, 93% of color laser printer users and 92% of color inkjet users said they either have had no problems with aftermarket cartridges or have had “just a few” problems, according to the survey.
Filed under: Industry News | Tagged: 3rd party inkjet, Australia, Calidad, Calidad ink cartridges, Canon, Dell uses Lexmark, DURABrite, Epson, HP, Lyra Research, New Zealand, Razor Blade Model | 2 Comments »
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