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INDIA:Relief on the way from ink cartridge angst
(OVIOUSLY
SINCE THEY CANNOT STOP COUNTERFEITING IN THESE COUNTRIES,THEY MIGH AS
WELL OFFER A CHEAPER CARTRIDGE FOR THOSE MARKETS.)
Chinese are being offered a cheaper but `original’ option
Bangalore
: “Pound for pound, forget gold and diamonds. There’s nothing more
valuable on earth, than an ink jet cartridge,” an editor of an
international printing industry journal said recently.”Caviar cost
less,” embittered customers have been known to rue – after waking up to
the real costs of owning a colour ink jet printer, which can be had
less than $70 or Rs. 3000.Unique economics
It
is a great bargain – but wait till the initial black and colour
cartridges run dry. That is when one understands the unique economics
of the budget computer printer business.Original cartridges from the
major ink jet printer suppliers in India tend to have as little as 15
millilitres of ink – for a price that can range from Rs. 750 to Rs.
2000 depending on the model.It is big business: the global digital
imaging supplies market is worth over $100 billion today, says Lyra
Research, a U.S.-based printing industry analyst, and of this ink jet
cartridges account for 32 per cent.11 trillion pages in 2005 Ironically
the digital revolution has not reduced the use of paper – only
increased it to 11 trillion pages in 2005.Unsurprisingly, the ink jet
market has seen a large alternative source developing: the business of
re-manufactured cartridges from third party sources or – more commonly
in India – a small neighbourhood cartridge filling service, which
typically charges Rs. 250-Rs. 500 for the refill.A price to pay
However,
there is always a price to pay: The May 2006 issue of Hard Copy
Supplies journal features a report by Lyra, based on detailed testing
by Wilhelm Imaging Research, that image permanence of photos printed
with refilled and re-manufactured cartridges is far inferior to those
printed with original cartridges for Canon, Epson and HP printers –
which happen to be three of the top selling models in India.But when a
new colour cartridge costs nearly Rs. 2000 and a black one, around Rs.
1000, many customers still go for the refilling route because they can
afford nothing better.
Many Indian users have found that refilled
cartridges often run out very fast or do not work at all. All leading
printer makers have built some `smartness’ into their cartridges –
ostensibly to warn users when cartridges are about to dry up. In some
cases, the chip that does this, has to be reset upon refilling.`Draft’ mode
In
a special briefing for The Hindu , Hewlett Packard’s Singapore-based
vice-president for the supplies business of the company’s Imaging and
Printing Group in Asia Pacific/Japan, John Solomon, revealed that its
research labs had developed a new black ink cartridge called `Simple
Black’ to address what it has found to be the widest application of
consumer ink jets: monochrome documents printed using the economical
`draft’ mode of its printers.
“Simple Black” for India
“We
introduced the `Simple Black’ in China, with great success and by the
end of this year we plan to offer it in India, our other big market in
Asia, where customers are very price conscious,” Mr. Solomon said. It
will be priced at around Rs. 500 – which will make it only a little
costlier than a refilled or third party cartridge, but about half what
an original `black’ for a HP printer costs today.
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